


Nobody tells you how much you need to suffer before happiness comes.

by DisneyBroadway123



Category: Captain America - All Media Types
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Relationships, F/M, It Gets Better, Late Night Conversations, Night Terrors, Past Abuse, Past Rape/Non-con, Past Verbal Abuse, Phone Calls & Telephones, Protective Bucky Barnes, YouTube
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-03
Updated: 2018-05-03
Packaged: 2019-05-01 18:49:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 41,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14526894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DisneyBroadway123/pseuds/DisneyBroadway123
Summary: Vivienne Shire has been suffering her entire life. Her parents got divorced and she had to leave her small port town and travel halfway across the planet to New York City to try and find a better life. Her mom gets remarried to a man that while she likes, he's not her father. She suffers from horrible nightmares due to her past boyfriend, Shane treating her like trash. Enter James "Bucky" Barnes who is about to make her life a thousand times easier.





	Nobody tells you how much you need to suffer before happiness comes.

_My name is Vivienne Shire and I moved to New York when I was ten from Southampton, England when my mother got remarried. My dad was my best friend but him and my mother were never really in love with one another. To this day I still have a hard time getting along with my mom and new step father since she divorced my original father. It’s not that I hate them, quite the opposite. My stepdad is perfectly fine, I just have little to nothing in common with him while I have almost everything in common with my dad. My dad was the one who taught me how to skate, dance, draw and watched movies with me growing up while my mom worked. We would watch all sorts of movies that he had loved when he was growing up. Sword In The Stone, Beauty And The Beast, Aladdin all sorts of Disney movies and other types as well like Princess Bride. Films that taught me about what real love had meant to him. Real love is about compromise. You don’t have to have everything in common with one another. Sure, it helps you when trying to get to know one another but it’s not essential. All my life I had believed that love was real and that it existed in the real world. However, after being mistreated in the past by my ex-boyfriend and ex-best friend Shane I started to doubt everything that I had been raised to think. I learned that you can’t trust anybody and sometimes the people that you really love will only hurt you worse in the end of everything. I still have one best friend that stuck around after Shaun left me broken hearted, Catlin or Cat as I had called her ever since I met her. She’s just about one of the most amazing women that I have ever met in my entire life and is everything that I’m not. Cat is confident, even cocky sometimes, strong willed, open minded, insanely strong and doesn’t put up with garbage from anyone. She can stand tall even when the earth is only trying to beat her down. I have wanted to become just like her since she can easily just talk to anybody. I can’t do that anymore. The abuse that I withstood when I was with Shaun for as long as I was pretty much royally screwed me over and left me with who I am today. I used to be one of the most popular artists at school and my friends were always asking me for commissions or sketches for them. I draw just about all the time even during the important classes since most of the time I’m able to get straight A’s with my eyes closed since my dad has a PHD in science and works for his own laboratory back in England. He would homeschool me since he thought that I could learn far more if he just taught me himself and he was right. He taught me not only the essential things but also just how to treat people and he was one of the reasons that I think I had so many friends back when I was in my junior year before Shaun cheated on me during spring break and I got wind of it on the first day back. The reason why I had even heard about it was because Cat had gone full on Hulk and punched him in the face.  Come to think of it, I wish that I would have seen that myself instead of just hearing gossip about it when I sat down in advanced biology. I wish that I could find someone who could help me get over my self-loathing. Cat is always telling me how not every guy is like Shaun and that I just made a horrible decision for dating him in the first place. Yeah like that was super helpful, information that would have been useful back in the eighth grade!! This was before I had met a person that I had no idea would change my life James Buchanan Barnes or I came to call him "Bucky". It started out like any normal in the Shire household..._ I woke up to the sound of my favorite theme song from Jesus Christ Superstar the song that Simon Zealotes sings but the unplugged version with the choir in the background that my school got to be a part of. I was one of the background singers that lifted Erik Grönwall up when he did the crowd wave. It was one of the most inspirational moments of my entire life and I'll never forget it. I sat up slowly in my bed and saw my crazy chestnut curls that I knew I needed to fix before I did anything else.

"Good morning baby girl, how did you sleep?" I sat down lightly at the table where there was already a hot chocolate waiting since she always seems to hear my alarm clock.

"I slept really well thank you mom. How about you?" My relationship with my mom was fine but she always seemed to be working unlike my dad who was stay at home at least until we had divorced him forcing him to find work sadly.

"I slept great, I need to talk to you about something though. Richard already knows, I told him last night." I could tell that this was going to be a very serious conversation but I had no idea what about.

"Is there something the matter mom? Have I done something wrong?" I asked her and instantly felt this vial of panic rise up in my chest as I pushed a lock of hair behind my ear nervously.

"No honey it's not you at all baby. There's just something that needs to be said that's all." My mother had married fairly young and was only thirty nine while I was going to be eighteen at the end of the month.

"Okay...?" I raised my eyebrow a character trait that was passed down through my father's line of the family.

"Sweetheart, please don't be mad at me. I didn't mean for this to happen, at least not until you had found a proper college and maybe fallen in love for real yourself for the first time." My mother reassured and I found myself growing even more anxious by the second as this conversation kept on happening.

"Mom, the more you beat around the bush the more confused I am going to get so just out with it." I reasoned and saw my mom's eyebrows start to crinkle together a thing that she did when she didn't know how I would handle a situation.

"Vivienne, please don't take this the wrong way but I'm pregnant. I was going to wait until you moved out until I told you but you're going to have a baby stepsibling by the beginning of next year probably January or February." I had no idea that's what my mom was wanting to tell me but I couldn't say that I was surprised and I really did like Richard, he was a good man. He just wasn't my dad by any stretch of the word.

"I'm not mad at you mom, in fact I'm really happy for you. Richard is a good man." I said shortly but I kept the smile on my face as genuine as I could knowing that this was really late in the gambit and I probably wouldn't be that close to my younger sibling since I would be wanting to live my own life.

"I know that the being apart from your father has been very hard on you but I appreciate the amount of cooperation that you've given me. Life has been hard for you and I completely understand why you haven't been the happiest. Makes me want to punch that Shane Mental in the face for doing what he did to you and just be the full-on badass mama but I didn't. I know that there is somebody out there who will be better for you than him though." My mom comforted and I smiled shyly back at her for understanding me.

"I do miss dad, a lot. Sure, I talk to him on the phone every night but it's just not the same as seeing him in person. I miss England too but New York is fine I've had opportunities here that I didn't have back there. I've been in a choir that lifted up Erik Grönwall for crying out loud!! That was so cool!!" I saw my mom start to laugh at how easily excited I had gotten about one of the very few things that I could talk to Richard about, our love for the Scottish band H.E.A.T that Erik frontlined.

"I know you did sweetheart, you wouldn't stop bragging about it to Richard after you did it either." My mom pointed out and I smiled at her for the amount of caring that she had for me and her husband.

"I can't help if it was really awesome, he was really nice too. I got to talk to him after we performed and he signed that CD for Richard so he still got something out of it." I shrugged my shoulders with a sly smile on my face when I heard Richard come out of his room in his pajamas still since he worked from home.

"Good morning lovelies, how are you?" I nodded my head as my stepdad took a seat next to my mom.

"I'm good, congratulations on becoming a father by the way. I'm really excited about becoming an older sister!! Even if I probably won't be very close to my younger sibling since I'll be starting college soon." I commented and Richard just smiled at me taking my mom's hand and mine with his free hand.

"I think that you will make an amazing older sister even if it is later in life than you were expecting. I know that I'm not the father that you wanted to grow up with and that he's halfway across the world right now but it means the world to both me and your mother that you were willing to compromise with me and grow to accept me." Richard told me and I smiled shyly over at him pushing a lock of hair behind my ears.

"My dad was my hero growing up so it was hard to have him be replaced especially only two years after we had left him back in England. I couldn't accept that he wouldn't be around anymore and I'm sorry for the way that I treated you initially." I apologized for what felt like the hundredth time he really had tried and it meant the world to me that he did.

"I understand how much you miss your father and he really taught you a lot when I wasn't around. Our marriage just wasn't working out baby girl and I didn't want the fighting that we were having get in the way of your amazing relationship with him. In the end, it was for the best that we went our separate ways. I have something for you though..." My mom stood up going over to grab something from the living room leaving me here in the kitchen with Richard.

"It's not your fault that you treated me that way, anybody from your situation would and that's why I told you to stop apologizing for it. We had just met and started dating not even three months after your mother left your original father. It makes perfect sense to me that you would act as hostile as you did. You taught me so many things, how to learn to cooperate with the people in your family, how to relate easier to people, and how to just take things at phase value. You helped me in a lot of ways, probably more than I've helped you. We got over Shaun as a family and that's why we're a good family because we can get through anything. You also got me into H.E.A.T and for that I owe you a lot. You could have had Erik sign anything that you liked but instead you took my CD with you to give him to sign for me." I smiled at my stepfather shrugging my shoulders. It was something that came naturally to me. Getting to perform with him was already a dream in it of itself so getting him to sign something for me really had no purpose but I wanted to do something for Richard.

"It was really a very small thought process for me. I knew that performing that close to him and just getting to see him up that close would be enough of a dream for me. I also knew that you were jealous of me and that opportunity that I was given so I wanted to have him do something for you and not just something selfish for me. Dancing and singing are my life so I got to do both when I did that audition to become a member of that choir just for that one gig." I reminded him and Richard just smiled at me as my mom came back to the kitchen handing me a piece of paper that was folded into an envelope.

"This is for your birthday, well one of them is the other one won't be for another month." My mom explained to me as I opened the first piece of paper that was a letter from my dad. We most of the time spoke over the phone but sometimes for special occasions he would send me letters in his amazing handwriting.

_Dear little love,_

_I know that the last year has been rough on you and believe me that if I saw that wanker of an ex-boyfriend of yours in person he would get a fist to the face let me tell you. You have become so strong though. Through everything, the divorce, the separation and losing most of your friends you have stayed my happy little girl. Sometimes I don't know how you do it or how you survived. But, all the same, I am so immensely proud of everything that you have become in the last year._

_I wanted to do something special for your birthday this year since I haven't been able to be around in the past eight years in person. For your birthday, I want you to come up to England with one of your friends. If you meet a boy than it could be him or it could just be Cat or Sam from what you've told me they sounds absolutely amazing. You don't have to meet any boys if that's not what you want, I only wish for your happiness. You're the most important person in my life right now and I want to see your eyes light up again when you're around someone who means a lot to you. You will be staying in the same big house that we all used to and it will be just me and you along with one guest of your choice._

_I love you more than the cosmos,_

_Papa._

"You're really going to let me be gone the weekend of my birthday?!" I asked both of my parents with an exaggerated happiness as my mother embraced me tightly with Richard right behind her.

"Of course we'll let you go and see your dad!! He means the world to you sweetheart so it makes sense that you would want to see him. You can just take Cat if that's what you want, we all just want you to be happy with whoever you see fit." My mom mentioned to me as I looked at the first class plane tickets to my hometown of Southampton England.

"Your mother is right Vivi, we only want you to spend your birthday with the person who matters the most to you. We'll have a family party with Cat and Sam before you both leave if she's going with you. You never know, your birthday isn't for three more weeks and you could meet someone before then." Richard remarked and I looked back at him with slightly watery eyes as I dried my tears.

"I'll call dad tonight to thank him for this. This is huge, I'll get to see him and see Southampton again!! I miss seeing the marketplace and eating food around the town." I was so excited I was practically bouncing up and down in the air that I would be getting to see my father again. I had missed him so much over the past eight years and this would be my first visit back home to see him again.

"I knew that you would be happy about this angel, it was something that your father knew you would love to do again. Open the other one, that one isn't until later next month but it will be an incredible night to say the least." My mother told me and I opened the next piece of paper and nearly squeed with sheer excitement alone. It was tickets to see both H.E.A.T and Elton John since they were both my favorite artists and floor seats to both.

"You guys didn't need to get me these expensive as hell concert tickets!! I mean they're amazing but-" Richard cut me off by shaking his head at me in defiance.

"You love both of these artists and they are your heroes as strange as they diverge. We wanted to give you these tickets for us as a family since they mean so much to you. This is your chance to get Erik to sign something for you since he's almost guaranteed to remember meeting you, it's the hair." My stepfather teased and I laughed at the comment about my hair brightly.

"It's your eighteenth birthday angel, these are to commemorate that moment. Besides, you've never seen either of these bands in concert before and we still have your yearly Broadway show in the front row that you haven't picked yet." My mom reminded us and I nodded my head at her. Every year on the night of the family party I got to pick one show that we all got to go and see and I haven't made my choice just yet. It was a close toss up between seeing Hello Dolly a movie that I had raised on with my dad and Spongebob Squarepants a television show that I had watched religiously as a little girl with my dad.

I heard the oven ding and we all separated from the group hug so that my mother could serve breakfast for all of us.

"Bon appetit family, it's all ready!!" My mom exclaimed and I smiled at her taking a serving of scrambled eggs, toast, fruit salad and turkey bacon from the pan that was in the oven.

"Thank you guys both again, I really can't wait to see H.E.A.T that's going to be a monster of a concert. We're all going to need earplugs for that one so close up. I'll have to bring my poster for Erik to sign or something if he remembers me." I parted my hair that was getting in my face before I tuckered into my breakfast.

"We'll get you shirts or whatever you want from both concerts honey, leave the poster where it is and have him sign something else." Richard reminded me and I smiled over at him as I took a piece of the fruit.

"I'm sure that your father will also buy you whatever you want for souvenirs from Southampton sweetheart. You're going to be one big spoiled eighteen year old girl." My mother commented already knowing that my father would probably buy anything that I saw that I wanted from my hometown.

"Can I thank you again already even though I haven't done any of these things yet?" I asked my parents who just laughed at me and my outlandish nature that I had sometimes.

"You haven't done anything yet angel, I'm really excited for you though. We really wanted to make it far more special than last years when you just stayed in your room crying all day because of what Shaun had done to you the day before. Are you excited to go back to Southampton though love? Are you going to go to Banana Wharf for breakfast one of the days that you're there?" Banana Wharf was our families go to for special occasions or when we just wanted to get out of the house for the day. They had amazing food and the most delicious burgers that I had ever had in my entire life for lunch other than the Handmade Burger Co. True, New York has Shake Shack but I always thought that they were really the less good Handmade Burger back home on the pier where I had grown up. I missed smelling the salty sea air that I had grown up so used to. Seeing all the ships sailing by at night when I had a hard time sleeping, hearing the oceans waves cascading me to sleep almost every night, it was heaven.

"Of course, either for breakfast or for dinner I'll have to talk to dad. I also want to visit the good old Hamburger Co as well they have the best burgers down there, even better than Shake Shack if you ask me. Cat can fight me all she wants, they pale in comparison even though they mostly do the same exact things." I reasoned and put my plate into the sink as I pushed my hair out of my eyes.

"You want me to do your hair baby girl?" My mother asked me and I nodded my head as my mother went to go and grab my favorite hair ribbon to tie it into a ponytail.

"There you go, that looks perfect baby. You should go and get ready for school, Cat and Sam will probably be here to walk with you soon." My mom reminded me as I went upstairs to go and get ready for the early morning day. I opened my drawers and my closet taking out my favorite shirt that was a beautiful galaxy and my leggings with a black skirt. Right as I grabbed my backpack and I heard the doorbell ring signaling that Cat was here to walk with me for another for day of school. I took out my favorite sneakers and opened my door once I tied my shoes.

"Morning Cat!! Ready for school? Where's Sam?" I asked my best friend and she smiled up at me asking for a hug and I gratefully took the hug from her.

"I guess that I'm ready for school, I just hope that everything stays calmer this year. I have no idea where Sam is but I texted him and he just hasn't gotten back to me yet." I knew what she meant by that if she were speaking in connotation, if Shane would mind his own business this year.

"I have no idea if he's going to to mind his own business Cat. I hope that he does, but then again he never does what he thinks he's going to do." My best friend pulled back from the hug and took my right hand.

"If he does than he will have to deal with me. I can always just hit him in the face again if you need me to do it." I smiled at my best friend as she helped me by handing me my water bottle that was on the counter that my mom had left for me.

"Bye Richard, I'll be back this afternoon!!" I waved to Richard as he smiled back at me with an easy grin.

"Don't get into too much trouble Vivi, if that boy bothers you just tell me and I'll have a nice chat with him okay?" I nodded my head but knew that I wouldn't tell him anything.

"I will Richard, thank you for your concern. Tell mom to have a good day too for me too will you?" I asked my stepfather who nodded his head at me pushing up his glasses.

"I will, have a good day now. Don't be late for your first period class!!" He reminded me as Cat walked out of my house with me and put her arm around my shoulders protectively.

"How was your morning? You certainly look happy, that's something I haven't seen on you for awhile." Cat questioned and I smiled back at her for caring so much about me.

"My mom is pregnant!! I'm going to be an older sister starting in early next year. I'm also going back to Southampton at the end of the month for my birthday!! My dad sent me plane tickets for me and one other person. He said that if I don't meet a boy than the tickets your's. I think that you would really love it there, it's an amazing place to be. I want to college up there I think, it's just glorious. I've wanted to go there practically since I was around the age of five.” I told my best friend excitedly nearly skipping down the sidewalk to school as she smiled back at me probably happy that for the first time in ages I was happy.

"Vivi!! That's incredible!! I almost don't want you to meet anybody new so that I can go with you. I have a feeling that you will meet your match today though, we are supposed to have some new students. I'll miss you though for however long you will be gone if I don't go with you. You'll have to take pictures for me on your phone. You take some of the best pictures that I've ever seen in my entire life!! And about your mom that's amazing!! I can't wait for you to find out the gender and become an older sister to some precious little child. Even if you will have an eighteen year long age gap I think that it will be amazing for you to have a younger sibling so that you know what it's like to have one." My best friend reasoned and I smiled over at her bumping my hip with hers.

"You can't see the future Cat, you don't know if I'll even meet anybody today. I hope that I do but even then, I don't think that anybody would want me after what Shane did to me." I felt tears start to pool in my eyelids until Cat handed me a kleenex that she had been keeping in her pocket. Cat always seemed to be carrying kleenex for me nowadays just in case I needed them.

"Don't go down that road, if you go down that road you'll never come back Vi. You're self-loathing has reached an all time low in the last couple of months. That's why your parents and I want you to meet somebody so badly because we want to see you smile again and see you dance again. Your parents only want the best for you Vivi and so do I. I love you like my older sister and Shane was wrong entirely to treat you the way that he did, hell he raped you!! Do your parents know about that?" My best friend ranted at me and I shook my head at her. She was right, he did rape me when we were in our sophomore year of high school. I told him that I wanted to wait since I hadn't wanted my first time to be with him though I didn't tell him that but he just took what was rightfully his or so he claimed.

"I never could get up enough courage to tell them what had happened that night. They had just thought that I was being overworked at school that's what I told them anyways." I mentioned to my best friend as she looked back at me with pain in her eyes, pain for my situation.

"Why couldn't you ever tell them sweetie? They obviously love and care about you despite how you feel about Richard. He only wants to protect you and so do I. But, they can't properly do that unless they know what you have been going through in the last year and a half.  They won't know if you don't tell them what happened and they have every right to know." Cat reminded me and I knew that she was right and that she had everything in line so that I would do exactly what she said to me.

"I understand Cat, I'll tell them before I leave for Southampton at the end of the month. About that, I have tickets for H.E.A.T at the beginning of next month and you can come with me if you want to." I mentioned to my best friend and she started to slightly cheer because that was something that I had gotten her into when we were in our early teens.

"Awesome!! I'm so game, I heard that they were going to Chicago but my parents didn't have the money for that kind of thing. How close are you going to be?" I smiled widely at my best friend knowing that this would flat out make her year right here.

"We may or may not have front row floor seats, so we're going to have to stand but I'm cool with that." I said to her and she instantly grabbed my arm making me stop walking.

"Vi!! What if he recognizes you?! That would be so incredible!! I think he will, I mean it's the hair. Everyone who ever meets you recognizes you by the hair and the accent which is adorable by the way if I haven't told you that before." My Southampton accent was still highly prevalent and most of my friends used to tell me how amazing that it was. It was sort of hard to communicate with people when I first moved here since my accent was so thick but Cat helped me learn how to speak without it for some words.

"He might recognize me Cat, but think about it, how many people has he met in his life? I do hope that he remembers me since I'll never forget meeting him in my life." We turned the corner stopping at a red light and I saw Shane coming up the road with his fresh girlfriend that he had probably just gotten. The typical blonde, blue eyed cheerleader type who had too much makeup on for a senior in high school.

"Morning Vi, have you replaced me yet?" I looked down at the ground just praying for the light to turn red so that I could continue to walk to school.

"N-No." I pushed a curl out from behind my ear so that I could mess with it a nervous habit that serious needed to be broken.

"Why don't you leave my best friend alone? What the hell did she ever do to you?" Cat growled out going into overprotective mode so that he would just leave me alone.

"Relax bodyguard, I'm just trying to make conversation. How was your summer Vi?" I looked down at my shoes knowing that if I would look up I would be lost in the blue depths of his eyes.

"I-It was fine. I just did the stuff that I would normally do. Talked to my dad every night, hung out with my mom and Richard. Went on vacations with Cat." I pushed a nervous lock of hair behind my ear knowing that I was being put on the spot for all to see.

"And how's your dad? Still saving the world finding the next cure for cancer?" Shane teased and I felt Cat's hand clench that was around my shoulders protectively.

"What the hell is your problem?! Seriously what did she ever do to you that would make you treat her like this?!" Cat yelled at Shane as his new girlfriend looked completely lost and confused in the ditsy way.

"Pookie, who are these two?" She asked Shane who just shook his head his new girlfriend.

"They're nobody sweetheart, just a bad memory is all. By the way, H.E.A.T sucks ass!!" He spat in my face and I looked up seeing a new boy walking down the road with his friend as he saw the whole scene go down.

"Y-You're just saying that because you never cared enough to listen to them. Erik Grönwall is boss as hell." I shot back at him trying not to stutter too much before I saw the boy cut through the group with his friend still behind him.

"Why don't you leave these two lovely ladies alone for the day?" The boy demanded and I looked up at him in both slight shock and surprise that he was standing up for me yet he had no idea who I was.

"What's it to you? I can talk to whoever I damn well please considering that Vi belongs to me." That was thank god the moment that the light turned red and I just wanted to book it the hell out of that situation and put on some music from my headphones. I took my phone out of my pocket and was about to put on Bastard Of Society a song that I had loved by H.E.A.T since I was in my freshman year when I first really started to listen to them.

"Wait for me Vivi!! You can't just run away from every situation and act like it doesn't bother you anymore!!" Cat called after me and I just broke down and started to cry when Cat wrapped her arms around me in a tight hug.

"Why can't he just leave me alone Cat? Why is he so hellbent on just making my life torture? What is he possibly hoping to gain?" I asked my best friend hugging her back as she ran soothing motions down my back.

"God what a bastard, making a lady cry like that." I heard the boy say who had rushed in to save my neck pretty much and I dried the tears in my eyes.

"Thank you for doing that for me. Sorry if I caused you any trouble." I apologized to the boy and he shook his head at me.

"It's no trouble doll, was just trying to help. I'm James Barnes but my friends call me Bucky." He introduced himself extending his hand so that I could shake it and I felt a warmth spread through my body.

"I'm Vivienne Shore, pleasure to meet you. This is my best friend and bodyguard Cat." I said to him as the boy next to Bucky shuffled his feet nervously.

"I'm Steve Rogers, Buck's best friend since preschool. I'm sorry that your first boyfriend was such a bully." Cat shook the hand of the smaller boy and I parted my hair nervously.

"Yeah... Shane is a bit of a piece of work. He just never wants to leave me the hell alone no matter how many times Cat tells him to leave me alone." Bucky sighed and smiled at me. It was weird to have this feeling of butterflies in my stomach after not having them for so long. And so quickly too but that was irrelevant. He was probably just trying to do the right thing.

"So where are from Vivi?" Steve asked me and I smiled to myself when we started to walk again as a group this time to school.

"I'm from Southampton, it's a small port town in England. Beautiful place truly and I miss it more everyday pretty much." I told my new friends as Cat linked her arm through mine. I took out my phone so that I could show my friends pictures that I had from Southampton that I did for a school project last year when we did it about our favorite place in the world.

"Wow, that really is beautiful!! Almost makes me want to paint." Steve said and I smiled at my new friend when Bucky put an arm around Steve's shoulders.

"You want to paint everything that you see artist boy!! What are your hobbies Vivi?" Bucky asked turning to me and I smiled brightly at my new friend.

"Well I draw much like Steve, but I'm also a prominent member of the school's drama comity. I love to be on a stage for some reason, it makes me feel better and I feel as though I can be myself when I'm out there. I'm a naturally shy person but when you hand me a guitar and some sheet music I feel like I could conquer the entire world despite my anxiety. I also really love movies, especially Disney and Pixar movies that my dad showed me when I was a little girl. My favorite is a toss up between Sword In The Stone and Beauty And The Beast which are also his favorites that we would watch together after studying since he homeschooled me. There's a lot of hobbies that I have, I'm also a really avid reader and have read my favorite book series, Lord Of The Rings close to ten times." I listed off all of these passions that I had while Cat laughed at me since she knew that I was just scratching the surface.

"She can also dance really well, but she doesn't do it very often since Shane told her that her dancing was pathetic." I nudged my best friend's arm harshly and glared over at her.

"So what's H.E.A.T and who's Erik Greenwall?" I laughed at Bucky's mispronunciation of my idols name as a slight anger flashed in Cat's eyes but thankfully I was faster than her so that I wouldn't lose my new friends.

"H.E.A.T is a band from Scotland that I am completely obsessed with and it's actually Erik Grönwall. Cat is in love with him, he's her biggest celebrity crush even though he's not exactly famous yet. He's famous to us though so that's what means the most to us." I explained to the newcomers as Cat halfheartedly glared at me from what I could see.

"At least I haven't met him in person unlike you have." I laughed at my best friend as she nudged my hip with hers and I got her back by doing the same thing to her.

"How did you meet him?" Steve asked me and I listened as Cat actually told this story despite the fact that she didn't get chosen.

"So, last year we had a choir tryout to see who join Choir! Choir! Choir! And provide backup for some of the artists that were performing for Jesus Christ Superstar live in early April of this year. Originally Vivi wasn't going to try out since she was too scared of what would happen but as soon as she found out that Erik was going to be performing his song for Simon Zealous she leapt at the opportunity. On the day of tryouts, you'd think that he was actually there himself she was so nervous!! But in the end she got chosen to join up with them on the trip to where they were performing with the artists. She got there like as soon as the place opened up to see if she could just see him warming up not knowing that he wasn't even there yet and she brought her sketchbook with her. When he did get there most of the other choir members were there as well and he started out doing the ever classic Freddie Mercury warm up and our girl was in the front row. You must have been holding back so much Vi during that entire exchange since you sounded like everybody else even though she could totally overpower them. At the end when most of the Choir members went back to their own homes she stayed around to see if she could get him to sign a CD for her stepfather Richard. He ended up being really nice to her so they just talked until Shane had came to pick her up since they were still dating back then." As Cat told them the story of how I had performed with the man who had changed my life I saw Bucky start to smile at me.

"Is there a video of this encounter?" I shook my head wishing that there was so that I could watch that video so many times but Cat pulled out her phone.

"There's no video as far as I know, but there is a video of them performing Simon Zealous. It's a really incredible song and Erik just kills it. We got to see him do it live and in person since my parents got tickets for the two of us to go and they were really close too. Erik even waved to her from where we were standing." I nudged my best friend and Steve laughed at the both of us interacting.

"I've told you a thousand times, he waved to the camera." I heard my best friend's mocking laughter as Bucky continued to watch the video with Steve through their headphones. I saw Bucky's eyes widen when he saw me helping Erik do the crowd surf since I was at the very end of it when he hopped back up onto the stage.

"He has an incredible range, I remember seeing him now. I had no idea that he was from a band though, you learn new things everyday. You did kind of look like it was the best thing that you had ever done. Just helping him up back onto that stage your smile could rival the sun.” Bucky complimented and I flushed with slight embarrassment at the sheer amount of praise that I was getting.

“Buck, I think that you’re embarrassing the girl.” Steve pointed out and I laughed at him.

“I’m fine just a little bit flustered is all. I’m not used to being complimented that’s kind of new territory.” I looked at my best friend still slightly flushed when we turned arriving at school as I heard whispering from almost all the people around me.

 _"Do you think that those are her new boy toys? Seriously?! After all this time she spent grieving over Shane who never deserved her anyways she gets two eligible men?!"_ I heard one girl whisper but I just tried to ignore it until Steve looked up to glare at them.

 _"I don't think that she would go that far but surely one of them must be her new boy toy. It must be the blue eyed beauty with the dark hair, she always had a thing for them."_ One of my ex-best friends whispered back and I just started to rub my temples knowing that this would be a very long day.

"Just ignore them Vi, they can't hurt you. They're just words nothing more and nothing less. Don't lose your temper over something as petty as words." I recited the information my dad had given me ever since I was a little girl just to try to calm myself down from having a sensory overload in the middle of the school's entrance.

"Who taught you that? It's good advice." Bucky asked me and I smiled over at him.

"My dad taught me that when I was younger. He taught me how to control my sensory overloads that I get when I'm in a stressful situation to help with my Asperger's." I informed him as Cat just glared at all the girls who were whispering and so was Steve.

"Guys, I'm fine, stand down." I asked my two bodyguards but they continued to do the exact opposite of what I had advised them and continued to glare and Bucky just shook his head at his best friend.

"Stevie really hates bullies, he got picked on a lot before I came around. He has massive health issues though so he sort of has to watch his temper as well." Bucky whispered to me and I smiled over at how much he clearly cared about his best friend.

"Cat used to get sick a lot too and so did I. Our immune systems are slightly better now, at least her's is mine not so much." I whispered back to him with a small smile as Steve held the door open for me as I pushed a lock of hair behind my ear.

"I might listen to H.E.A.T, what type of music do they make?" Steve asked me and I started to play around with my fingers twiddling them as an old habit that really needed to die.

"Well, they are slightly heavy metal. Think a more mellow version of Nirvana and that's pretty much them. They make really great music though. My other favorite artist is the complete opposite of Erik though. It's Elton John since I have an obsession with the piano and still love playing it to this very day. I can play both guitar and piano though I don't have a piano at my house, I do have a guitar though and I'm babbling another aspie trait I'll stop talking in three...two...one." _Smooth girl really smooth... Why don't you make yourself look a like a bigger idiot in front of your crush that you've just developed?_

"That's adorable, does it happen often?" Cat laughed at Bucky's thoughts as Steve looked back at his best friend with a raised eyebrow saying bro really?

"Once you get her going then she'll just go off on her own little tangent about almost anything. Especially the LGBTQ community since her dad is openly bisexual since she was really little. He came out to you when you were eleven right?" My best friend asked me for clarification and I smiled at the question nodding my head in affirmation.

"He came out to me the week after my eleventh birthday when he got his first boyfriend after the divorce since it had been nearly two years after the divorce. He's broken up now though, it was a short term thing, his partner just wanted a body and that wasn't what my dad had wanted. My dad's special. He has a mind that sometimes runs a million miles an hour, he's an insomniac since his mind just never seems to shut off, he tinkers a lot when my mom and I were asleep and even made robots. I think of him as the real life version of Tony Stark but without the ego. He still has his sarcastic sense of amazing humor that always makes me laugh and he has his overprotective side as well. I don't think that he's had a boyfriend ever since then though, he tends to lead more towards men but he doesn't talk to me about those kinds of things. It's always been about me whenever he calls me at night, how my day was, if Shane is still bothering me, how Cat is doing, if I'm making any other friends at school those kinds of things. Whenever I try to turn the topic over to him, he'll just change the subject back to me again." I explained to my friends about how my dad acted as a person when I heard my phone ding. I reached into my pocket and saw that it was my dad who texted me.

_Dad: Morning baby girl!! Of course I'm only just going to sleep over here even though it's seven am. I had a project that I was working on last night. I hope that you have a great day at school though. I look forward to hearing your call tonight!! I love you so much princess._

_Me: Dad!! I told you to watch the hours that you sleep. It had better be an important project and you're going to hopefully tell me about it later. I love you too daddy, get some good night's sleep._

"Is that your dad texting you?" Steve asked me as I smiled at him nodding my head.

"Yes I am, he's just getting to sleep even though it's seven am in Southampton right now. He's honestly really amazing and I love the fact that he cares so much about me. It's just I miss him, more than anything." I looked down at my sneakers when Bucky put an arm comforting around my shoulders.

"I'm sure that he misses you as well doll from the way that you talk about him. You read Marvel comics?" Bucky changed the subject from my missing my dad to more of the boy side of my personality.

"I do read Marvel comics, mostly Iron Man and Deadpool but there is a couple in between there. My dad got me started on Iron Man when I was around the age of three to help me learn how to read. My mom worked a lot during my childhood and my dad mostly still works in his home laboratory designing prosthetics to make people's lives better." I told my new friends as we started on our way to where they were handing out our schedules.

"That's really incredible that he could do anything with his life in science but he chooses to work to help people's lives get better right Buck?" Steve nudged his best friend who I could see was easily uncomfortable. I looked up at him just now seeing the shininess of the metal arm.

"Do you mind if I asked what happened? If it's too personal than you don't have to-" Cat looked up at Bucky curious as well about the arm that he had hidden this entire time.

"It was a bike accident when I was nine years old. I was a stupid kid and wasn't looking where I was going and got ran over by a car. Luckily Steve was right behind me on his own bike heaving for breath because of his asthma, he called my folks." I felt my eyes start to grow misty just at the sheer thought of him having to go through such a painful experience.

"It was far worse than he is making it out to be. Hurts him just about everyday and it's basically a dead weight." Steve mentioned and I instantly had an idea. If I brought Bucky with me to Stockholm at the end of the month than maybe my dad could make him something.

"I'm so sorry that had to happen to you Bucky. I wish that I could do something to help with that pain." I looked down at my phone wondering if my dad would even want to help him.

"It's not your fault doll face, it happened a long time ago. You don't need to do anything for me. What other types of comics did your dad read with you?" Again, changing the subject from him but I smiled to myself at the memory of my dad and I sprawled out on the couch looking through comic books together and sharing a laugh at their silliness.

"My favorites were Bill Waterston's Calvin and Hobbes. My dad had even had a Hobbes made for me by a female friend who specialized in making stuffed animals from hand." I mentioned as we reached the front desk where they had all the schedules for at least homeroom. I looked under my last name seeing that I had Mr. Hutcherson the arts teacher for homeroom this year and so did all my other friends.

"Hutch is the arts teacher here, he's one of my favorites. Up there with the advanced Chemistry teacher Mr. Walter and yes I took advanced science classes. I'm extremely good at science just like my dad because he taught me everything that he knows about the way that it works. Math is the only thing that I don't excel as well with but I still enjoy it." I said quietly when Cat bumped my hip with her's and I saw a playful smirk on her lips.

"You wanna go?" I asked my best friend as she laughed at me heartily bumping me again as I tried to not crash into Bucky and Steve as they both looked at us curiously.

"It's kind of our thing that we've done ever since Vivi first moved here when she was ten. We try to bump each other until one of us cracks or we get bored." Cat mentioned to them and I smiled at my best friend aiming my next shot that would be sort of cheep but it would work. It was on her side where she was the most ticklish as she squirmed slightly.

"That's totally cheating!! I can't believe you!!" Bucky started to laugh at both of us as we were just goofing around with one another.

"Seems like that game was made for cheap shots though doesn't it?" Steve asked us with a raised eyebrow as we all laughed at him and I shrugged.

"Most of the time it's Cat that pulls the cheap shots since she knows all of my main weak spots. Then again that's a best friend's job to be able to point out all your flaws lovingly, at least that's Cat's job." Cat rolled her eyes at me as we reached the art room that was closer to the cafeteria and I actually held the door open this time.

"Good morning Hutch!!" I greeted the arts teacher who smiled brightly at me.

"I didn't know that you had my homeroom this year Vi, got some new friends?" He asked me and I nodded my head as they introduced themselves to the teacher.

"I'm Steve Rogers, I should have your art class as well. I mostly do background work though and painting." Steve mentioned to the teacher with a slight sparkle in his eyes.

"James Barnes but my nickname is Bucky ever since I was little. I'm not exactly an artist but it's nice to meet you." Mr. Hutcherson sat down next to me and Cat for a moment before the classroom started to fill up and I saw Shane come over to our table. _Please don't cause a scene, I already know that you are but for the moment will you go easy on me. You already tormented me this morning wasn't that enough to satisfy you?! When will it ever be enough when I'm finally broken down and crying? Like I'll ever cry in front of you, I wouldn't give you that satisfaction._

"Looks like we have the same homeroom again Vi, shouldn't you be sitting alone though? You're only being a burden on everybody." He knew that was my worst fear that I was only bothering everybody around me. That was such a cheap shot for crying out loud!! Give a person with anxiety more to worry about that sounds like the perfect idea to me what about you?

"Anxiety isn't even real with you, I've never seen you have a panic attack and your sensory overloads is just a lie. They're not a real thing." That seemed to be the end of it for Cat as she fully lost her cool with Shane.

"You son of a bitch!! How dare you talk down to her about anxiety?! You don't have it so thus you don't get a say in this situation!! And her sensory overloads are a real thing. Not that you would know about that." Cat spat in his face right as Hutch saw the entire scene go down.

"Mr. Mendez, I would kindly prefer if you left my best art student alone." Hutch calmly took control of the situation so that Cat wouldn't go full hood-rat and punch him in the nose.

"This isn't over losers, I'll be back." Bucky looked at him with the sheer murder that was evident in his eyes as he clenched the table to try to hold back his anger issues towards Shane.

"I'm really sorry about him, I wish that I could go back in time and change everything but I can't. He seemed so nice when we were all best friends that I thought I was making the right decision." I reasoned with my two new friends as Steve looked at me with understanding yet anger that was still hidden deep down.

"It's not your fault dolly, I can't believe that your able to hold Cat back like that though." I laughed at Bucky's comment towards my best friend as she huffed still angry.

"It took months of practice but ever since he dumped me after cheating on me multiple times I got stronger at holding her back. The one time I didn't she punched him in the face and broke his nose." Bucky let out a low whistle at what I had just told him slightly surprised yet terrified at my best friends antics.

"Don't worry Bucky, as long as you treat her right, you won't get on my bad side." Cat winked at my new friend as I blushed knocking her upside the head lightly as she looked over at me.

"What the hell was that for? Just making sure that were clear and on the same ground here." I nudged my best friend sending the patent glare of irritation that I had inherited from my father.

"I know but was that seriously necessary?" I asked my best friend and Steve smiled at the both of us.

"What other things did you used to do in Southampton?" Bucky asked me and I started to smile at the mention of my hometown halfway across the world.

"Let's see, on the best days my family would go out to brunch or lunch at Banana Wharf or Hamburger Co, which is basically a more professional version of Shake Shack. We would also go walking around farmers markets every week to get fresh fruit and breads with jelly. I used to just love going on morning runs with my mom on the pier since my dad was usually just getting ready to go to bed. We lived in a rather large house right by the pier so we would always hear waves crashing during the day. It was extremely soothing and that's probably one of the things that I miss the most. I loved working with my dad on projects with my dad whenever he allowed me to. Once I started to go to school here I was offered to skip a couple of grades so that I could graduate early but I declined. I wanted to stay with Cat and Shane who at the time was our third best friend. I lost a great majority of my friends when he broke up with me since he got most of them on his side of the argument. Sometimes even though he's halfway across the world, my dad is my best friend. My mom and Richard both try but I was raised to love dad since my mom was constantly busy with work. Theater is also huge over there but mostly it's plays and not musical theater. I think my favorite thing to do was on the weekends when we would have family movie nights in our home movie theater. It's one of the things that I fought for actually since I wanted a comfy place to watch movies with my parents when we had the free time." I explained to my new friends about the place where I had grown up when I heard the bell ring and all the other students that weren't already in the classroom started to file in.

"Good morning students and welcome to homeroom for your final year of high school. Most of you know me as Mr. Hutcherson, the leading art teacher around here and I teach both painting, art composition and character designing. It's hard to believe since I've had most of you since your freshman year back when art was a mandatory class and not just an elective to be taken as you will. It's my job to make sure that all of you are ready to go for graduation including a final project. Everyone in here must pick a college, even if going to college isn't in your future and do a research project on it in front of the principal before the end of the year. Some of you, already have colleges in mind and for those of you I'm proud of you for getting ahead. You might want to factor in that the college that you've been dreaming about might not accept you though. College's are very picky but they are also extremely rewarding if you go to a good school. How many of you have been thinking about this for a long time?" I ended up being the only student that raised my hand as Mr. Hutcherson just sighed in exasperation knowing that his job would be probably very hard.

"Where do you want to go to school Miss Shire?" He asked me with a smile already probably knowing the answer since I had talked about it to death with Cat when she tries to talk me out of going halfway across the world for college.

"I want to go to Southampton University, in my hometown to major in science or art I haven't decided which one yet." I sat down next to Cat again as she smiled at me for being so brave and standing up in front of all of them like that.

"What college do you want to go to miss... Lea?" Mr. Hutcherson asked the girl who had just insulted me and the profession that I was so clearly adamant about.

"I want to be a model, no need to go to college for that. All I have to do sis sit there and look beautiful and be gorgeous Mr. Hutchersan." I saw Cat scowl at the girl.

"Good luck with that honey, you're already a whore so we won't need to change a thing about that." I heard my best friend mutter under her breath just quiet enough so that the girl couldn't hear her but I could. I nudged Cat's shoulder harshly with a look of don't even bother going there and fighting with her.

"Damn, that was cold!! Another reason as to not mess with Caitlin Summers!!" I turned around to see an old friend of mine that had actually stuck around after the big knock out drag out fight Samuel "Sam" Wilson. He had been deeply in love with Cat ever since we were Freshman in high school and I actually really really liked him. He was a good man and he was really funny, I laughed heartily at my best friend and so did Bucky and Steve.

"Guys this is my second best friend, Sam this is Bucky and Steve." I introduced as Hutch took back control of the class right when Sam pulled up a chair next to me.

"I want to learn as much about you as I possibly can within the next week. For today though, I'm sure that you would much rather trade schedules with the rest of your friends. Tomorrow, the real work begins." Hutch informed the rest of us and started to hand out schedules.

"So how did you all meet?" Sam asked mostly me but Bucky answered the question for me with a smile.

"Me and Stevie were just going about our morning since we've been neighbors for the past eleven years almost. We were almost to school when I saw this adorable girl being in a conversation that she really didn't look like she wanted to be there. I stepped in and I wanted to be her friend." Bucky explained the meeting as Sam nodded his head at me.

"Well thank you for standing up for my best friend. Shane used to be my best bud but than he started going after someone that I thought as practically my twin sister. Her birthday is about a week before mine so I consider her my twin." I nudged Sam lightly as Steve smiled at the both of us interacting with one another.

"How long have the two of you known each other?" Steve asked as Cat answered that question.

"We were the three musketeers ever since we were in grade five until Shane came in and decided to place himself right the middle of the three of us. Through friendship and the powers of lots of group therapy between the three of us involving ice cream and movie nights we're still just as tight as we once were." Cat told the two other boys and they both smiled easily at me.

"We were the only friends that stuck with her through everything. All the others left her by the wayside and got with the traitor. There used to be more than ten of us and we were all tighter than everything in the world. Than Shane decided to start spreading all these rumors about her and me and Cat were the only ones left. Not that I'm complaining, the others were mostly just a bunch of tools." Steve started to laugh before Bucky did and this time his laughter sounded like some of the best music in the world to me. I would give anything for Sam constantly to be making jokes around him if that's what it took.

"I don't know about tools, but some of them definitely weren't the nicest bunch. Kind of came with being popular though, some just wanted it for the status." I shot back at my best friend as he rolled his eyes at me.

"Leave it to you to be the nicest girl I know to not say that people who are tools and not call them tools. You can afford to be rude to the people that deserve it." Bucky just smiled easily at the my best friend and how much Sam clearly cared about me.

"It's not in my nature to call people names Sam!! You know that I'm not that type of girl." I argued with my best friend as Bucky nodded his head at me with a slightly quirked up eyebrow.

"You don't seem like the type of girl that would be the calling names type. But, Sam does have a point with the fact that some people can and do deserve that kind of treatment." Sam gestured to my new friend in a see motion and I laughed at his wide expression.

"See, Bucky knows what I'm talking about and understands that sometimes it's necessary to treat others with disdain if that's the way that you get treated." Sam reasoned and I smiled at my best friend as Hutch came over to our table carrying our schedules.

"Here you guys go, most of your classes will be together. The only difference is that Sam, Cat and Bucky won't have art class. You all have Accelerated Physics which will be slightly difficult so make sure that your lab partner is Vivi since she's aced all of Walter's hard classes." I blushed under the scrutiny of Hutch's speech about our classes together.

"Trade you?" I asked Sam and he grinned back at me pulling the swap maneuver so that I could see my bestfriends schedule.

"So, how was your morning Vi? Sorry for missing the morning walk to school. Usually I walk with them but my mom insisted on driving me." I laughed at Sam turning towards him while Cat talked with Steve and Bucky in the background.

"Well it was kind of an eventful morning in the Shire this morning. Turns out my mom is going to have a baby early next year so I'm going to be an older sister-" As I was explaining my morning to my best friend he held up his hand in a wait a minute signal.

"Hold up a second, your mom is pregnant?" I nodded my head with a small smile and a slight chuckle at my best friend's nature.

"Apparently, I had no idea until she told me this morning. She and Richard have been trying for nearly four years but I almost forgot that we even had that conversation. Also, I'm going to be going back to Southampton for the week of my birthday so sorry for not being here but I'll be back for your's the week after I promise." I mentioned to my best friend but he smiled at me all the same. His smile was one of the things that I really looked forward to throughout the day, it was a simple and easy smile but you could tell how much it meant to him.

"It's no problem girl, go home and hang out with your dad. I know that you miss him a whole lot and I wouldn't want to keep you from him. Anything else that I missed?" I nodded my head with a small smirk knowing that he would want to hear this straight from the source and not from Cat.

"I also got two birthday presents in advance from my parents both of them concert tickets for me. One of them is for Elton John where it will be just me and my parents but the other one is one that I'm extending to you and Cat. It's front row floor tickets to H.E.A.T!! My mom totally scored and I'm really excited about it too. Cat thinks that Erik will recognize me but I highly doubt it." My best friend smiled brightly and I could tell how excited he really was about the concert tickets.

"I read that they were going to be performing just outside of Chicago next month but I didn't think that your folks would get tickets. Let alone invite little old me and Cat." I nudged my best friend hearing the bell ring overhead and I grabbed my schedule to see where I was going first. It looked like it was going to be my musical theater class one of my favorites.

"Looks like the first class for the three of us is Musical Theater, what about you two?" Cat asked the other two guys and I smiled shyly mostly to myself thinking about how happy I was to have two more friends in my group.

"I have psychology while Stevie has I think computers. When is science?" I looked at my own schedule seeing that was my second period.

"We all have that second period, it's not that hard to find Walter's science labs it's upstairs and on your left." Sam explained the directions thankfully since sometimes even though I've had him for all four years I never could find his labs.

"Thanks Sam, have a good first period." I saw Steve drag Bucky out of the room as Sam looked at me with a smirk and I knew exactly what he was thinking about.

"I know what you're thinking and yes I think I like Bucky but am I going to peruse him that way, I don't think so Sam. He deserves better than me." I looked down at my feet starting to put my bag onto my shoulders.

"Why do you constantly do that? Put yourself down? Tell yourself all these horrible things that aren't true?" Cat asked me and I sank my shoulders feeling the tears starting to drip down my eyes.

"Because Shane would tell me these things when we were together!! How useless I was, how nobody but him would ever put up with me, how I couldn't do the simplest things right, how my voice and acting were horrible, how bad of a person I was!! That nagging voice in the back of my mind, it sounds just like him!! It critics my every move and I'm so sick of it." I started to walk away from my two best friends but Sam stopped me before I got too far away.

"What else did he do that we don't know about?" Sam asked me quizzically and I tried to not say anything to him but it all just came out at once and every stared at me as they tried to get to their classes.

"He forced himself onto me, but Cat already knows that because she had to deal with after effects of it the first time-" Cat cut me off at that with a loud scream.

"THIS HAPPENED MORE THAN ONCE?!!" She looked more furious than I had ever seen her in my entire life as Sam struggled to get a good grip on her to try to calm her down.

"It happened ten times in the entirety that we were together, always with protection. Said I wasn't worth getting knocked up by anybody ever and that nobody would ever want to make that commitment to me." I admitted everything that I had been through throughout this entire situation when we were together.

"Why didn't you tell me? I could've helped you out." Sam protested and I smiled to myself at how protective Sam was towards the people that he loved when he embraced me tightly in the biggest hug that he was capable of at the moment.

"Because he told me if I ever told anybody that he would come at me ten times harder and that scared me. It's why I distanced myself last year when the raping's first started to so that I wouldn't have to tell you."

"You never told me anything about this happening more than once. Why not? I'm your best friend, best friends shouldn't have any secrets at all from one another." I looked back at my best friend even though I was in the middle of the hug.

"It's complicated Cat, I didn't want to bother either one of you and that's why I wanted to not talk about it. Overtime I began to believe everything that Shane told me, how I would never be enough for anybody." I parted my hair lightly that was getting in my face when Cat brushed the stray tears from my eyes.

"No more secrets alright Vivienne? This is serious business here so you need to take it seriously." Sam affirmed and I nodded my head faintly as we all started to walk down to musical theater class.

"For the record, I don't think that Bucky cares Vi. About you being broken and damaged that is. Because he is broken too. What is it that Cogsworth says about the baroque era?" Cat asked me knowing that I would be able to connect the dots between her joke and my favorite animated film.

"If it ain’t broke don't fix it?" I responded still confused at why exactly we were having this conversation.

"You got it, I see where she's going with this. I saw Bucky's right arm when we were all talking, looks like it was painful. He's broken from the outside and you're broken from the inside, emotionally.  Both broken, but deep down they are still good people and great friends. You would compliment each other almost perfectly like your mom and Richard. Just different enough but still able to talk and debate about everything." Sam linked his arm through mine and Cat did the exact same thing with my other hand.

"Would you be able to do me a favor?" I asked my two best friends and they both looked at me curiously.

"Depends what's the favor?" Cat asked me and I started to fidget with my fingers slightly and moved my hair behind my ear.

"Could you both tell me how amazing I am? Maybe I could tune out the negatives with the positives for a day. If you don't want to then it's--" Sam cut me off with the first amazing thing.

"No, that's not not a big deal. I can do that any day of the week. Let's start with the accent. Your accent is adorable, the way that you used to stumble over some words. You still sometimes stumble over words when you really get going but it's still the most adorable thing in the entire world." Sam praised and I started to swell with both embarrassment but I was already feeling so much better.

"Alright I get the next thing, your artwork is some of the most creative and amazing that I have ever seen. You just get in this headspace when you draw and it's like your eyes sparkle loud enough so that everyone can see. The way that you talk about home you see the same effect on it and it's adorable. I saw the way that Bucky was looking at you, all soft smiles and heart eyes. It's like I'm some kind of Disney movie." Cat lovingly scrunched up her nose.

"Cat's right, you seriously just met the guy this morning and he's already gone for you. Like way the hell gone." I started to laugh at Sam's nature as I smiled softly to myself.

"The butterflies in the stomach is something that I'm going to have to get used to. Shane never did that to me, I thought it was just a made up lie that they made up for children so that they would get their hopes up or something like that." I added just thinking about him was starting the butterflies into a frenzy.

"Nope that's normal girly but all the same very rare. But all the same, that just means that it's the right thing that time. I seriously want to teach Shane a lesson so badly now." Cat growled out and Sam just got her taking some deep breaths to try to get her chill the hell out. I saw the musical theater room just ahead and Sam got the door for both of us right when the bell rang for the class period to start.

"Good morning singers!! Sit on the floor in a circle please!!" I heard our theater teacher Mrs. Green call out into the room as I sat in between Cat and Sam comfortably resting my legs out in front of me as everybody else moved into the circle with Mrs. Green in the front.

 _"Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back..._ I hope that everybody had an excellent summer!! But, it's time to focus back on school. My class for musical theater is relatively easy. We're going to be studying different styles but at the same time learning how to play musical theater songs on instruments. Let's start with a little bit of an introduction today and tomorrow we'll start the real work. My name is Mrs. Green and I'm the head of the drama and musical productions for our high school. I graduated from a college here in town and had that option to fully do theater but I chose to work with you little brats so don't make my job too hard." She teased and I chuckled slightly underneath my breath and knew that she was just joking around with her students.

"We're going to start with... Vivienne Shire. She's one of my best students." I was mentally cursing her name but went over to get the guitar to play my tune out anyways.

"Hi, I'm Vivienne Shire, I'm a senior here. Are we still doing the three facts Green?" I asked my favorite female teacher who nodded her head for me and I smiled at her.

"Alright my dad is Edmond Shire, one of the main heads of the prosthetic industry and taught me everything he knows and I want to work with him someday for my dream job. I want to graduate at Southampton University and get my doctorate just like my dad before me in science. I also really love to draw, that's my other favorite thing and my one main way of relaxation after a stressful day. My final fact is that I have an obsession with this band from Sweden called H.E.A.T front-lined by my idol Erik Grönwall and I've actually met him when he was doing Jesus Christ Superstar." I introduced myself to the group and they all clapped for me.

"And where are you from?" I kicked myself inside my head as I smiled shyly.

"I'm from Southampton England and lived there until I was ten and my parents wanted to get a divorce." I told the class and they all looked at me slightly judging but I could tell that they were keeping it to themselves thankfully.

"What are your favorite three musicals and what song will you be performing? It doesn't have to be musical theater children but it is a little bit of a big deal since this is a theater class." I laughed at my favorite teacher getting ready to play my heart out for my classmates.

"My favorite musicals are Hello Dolly, Singin' In The Rain and... damn the last one is always hard for me because I love so many... I'm going to say Hedwig, Hedwig is my third favorite. That's Hedwig And The Angry Inch as probably most of you know. I'm feeling a little bit romantic and nostalgic today so I'm bringing out a song that I haven't played in a really long time, Origin Of Love from Hedwig and the angry inch." I told my classmates beginning to play the guitar to a song that had spoken to me especially within the last year.

 _"When the earth was still flat and clouds made of fire and mountains stretched to the sky sometimes higher. Folks who roamed the earth like the big heads they had two sets of arms, they had two sets of legs, they had two faces peering out of one giant head so they could watch all around them as they talked while they read and they never knew nothing of love. This was before the origin of love, the origin of love. And there were three sexes then, one looked like two men glued up back to back called the children of the sun. And similar in shape and girth were the children of the earth they looked like two girls rolled up in one. And the children of the moon looked like a fork shoved on a spoon, they were part sun, part earth, part daughter, part sun. Now the gods grew quite scared, of our strength and defiance and Thor said, I'm gonna kill 'em all my hammer, like I killed the giants. But Zeus said, no you better let me use my lighting like scissors like I cut the legs off the wales, dinosaurs into lizards. And then he grabbed up some bolts, he let out a laugh, said I'll split them right down the middle, gonna cut 'em up in half and the storm clouds gathered above into great balls of fire. And that fire shot down like the sky in bolts like shining blades of a knife and it ripped right through the flesh of the children of the sun and the moon and the earth. And some Indian god sewed the wound up through a hole turn it round to our bellies to remind us of the price we payed. And Osiris, the gods of the nile gathered a perfect storm to blow a hurricane to scatter us away in a flood of wind and rain to see our title waves to wash us all away and if we don't behave they'll cut us down ha, we'll be hopping around on one foot and looking through one eye. The last time I saw you, we'd just split in two. You were looking at me, I was looking at you. You had a way so familiar, I could not recognize that you had blood in your face I had blood in my eyes. But, I could swear by your expression that the pain down in your soul was the same as the one down in mine. Oh, that's the pain. That cuts a straight line down through the heart. We call it love. We wrapped our arms around each other, tried to pull ourselves back together. We were making love, making love. It was a cold dark evening such a long time ago, when by the mighty hand of Jove. It's a sad story how we became lonely two legged creatures, it's the story of the origin of love. That's the origin of love..."_ As I finished the song in the middle of the circle I heard clapping from all angels.

"You know something that I just realized Vivienne? You would make the ultimate perfect Yitzhak!!" Mrs. Green reminded me and I smiled at my favorite female teacher.

"Thank you for the compliment, he's kind of my dream role. If I ever get the opportunity to play him I'll literally have to pinch myself. He taught me about being strong and about how to work with the roles that you are put into. That sometimes the people in your life will put you into roles, the submissive husband, the man who was made out to be a woman so he had to learn to work with his new body and fast. I've been put into the submissive role before forcefully and it wasn't something that I practically  enjoyed or would want to do again. I didn't do anything about it though so it was hard for me to get adjusted to the role that I was shoved into. Overtime, I still didn't get used to it, I was shoved out of that role and had to get back to normal before anyone had noticed that I had changed at all." I explained why Yitzhak had meant so much to me because I related to that strength and I found a lot of myself in hi especially after my relationship ended with Shane.

"Sometimes that does happen and it's not easy to make people not worried about you. I'm glad that you're happier though, it suits you. Sam, you're next!!" I went to high five my best friend before helping him up off the ground as Cat gave me a giant hug.

"I'm really proud of you Vivi, I got that on video if you wanted it to maybe show your dad?" I nodded my head quietly and smiled at her when I got the text from her a minute later as I turned my attention to Sam.

"Hi, I'm Sam Wilson. I was born and raised here in New York City and I've pretty much never left the city. It sounds a little bit boring but I love it here and I'll probably stay here for the rest of my life. Three facts about me is kind of hard. I'm just your typical nice guy, I'm friendly, loyal, wacky and love making Vivi and Cat laugh. I guess I have an immense admiration for Leslie Odom Jr, that's something. I've known Vivi since I was ten and I'm really protective over her since her birthday is just a week before mine. My final fact is that I'm captain of track team during the spring with the boys and Vivi does it for the girls. She's always been way faster than me though and seeing her race is by far a treat." I laughed at my best friend as he introduced himself but even then I felt he was underselling himself.

"My favorite musicals are Hamilton of course since my dream role in life is Aaron Burr, I also love a good fairytale so Beauty And The Beast is definitely up there and my final one kind of under the radar is Freaky Friday. I will be performing a song that Adam sings to a young Fletcher that he calls his life lesson, Woman and Sandwiches." I started to laugh at him knowing that Sam would have picked this song and I went to the piano so that I could help him out by playing the happy tune that had spoken to both of us in a humorous way.

 _"Woman and sandwiches, they always surprise. They are more complicated than burgers or fries, or guys. Woman and sandwiches, some are cold and some hot. But take what they offer, and you'll learn a lot. You're doubtful and dreadful, they've burnt you before. But trust me my brother, you'll line up for more. For they might be crusty and salty and sour but women and sandwiches always have the power.  And sometimes there's a sandwich with a taste that disagrees. That might make you angry, gives you agita, the queasy. But go with it for at least a while, and soon it's not so strange with time and understanding taste can change. Women and sandwiches, like chocolates and wine. Sometimes the strange ones are just the most fun. You look on the outside, the face or the bread. You don't know what's in that roll or that head. But odds are you'll like what's inside for you all, women and sandwiches, I so love them all. And sometimes there's a sandwich that you looked at just one way, then it suddenly surprised you, say a lot and saved today. And then you asked to do something that you thought was just a cheat. That explanation was not so complete it was just a simple feat. So maybe you'll help her because she's sweet and her brother's pretty neat. (Me) So, you dropped the metaphor. And you're just talking about a woman at this point. That's what's going on here, right?  (Sam) You got me. Well, long as their heavenly mysteries live!! And all the joys and sorrows they give!! Wherever the weirdos, the wishing men roam, women and sandwiches (Me) Women and sandwiches (Both) Women and sandwiches. (Sam) Will always bring us home..."_ I started to laugh when Sam did the superhero slide to Cat's spot while she just blushed and laughed at her best friend. I could see them both giving each other heart eyes before Sam kissed my best friend and everyone in the room clapped and I was really proud of my two best friends in the entire world.

"That was really beautiful Sam. I'm really proud of you and everything that you have become." I smiled at my best friend as he took his spot back by Cat where he held her hand. I took out my phone to text my best friend.

 _Me to Sam: Nice work casanova!! I'm really proud of you too, that was really brave of you. I wish the best for both of you and thank you for being there for me when I told you about what Shane did to me._ I continued to sit there as Sam texted back while I played the piano for everyone who wanted me to play it for them.

 _Sam to me: Thanks for always having some amount of faith in me. It means a lot to me that you were able to listen to everything including all the pining that was coming from my end of things. I'm hoping that I get to return the favor when you and Bucky get closer and I hope that you will take a chance with him. He seems like a really great guy and perfect for you. Like Origin Of Love style perfect, cut from the same cloth type of deal. You're a really great person Vi and I hope that know how much I care about you as my twin sister. You constantly make me smile with everything that you do and thanks for being a great wingman for me!!_ I smiled at my best friend giving him the thumbs up signal from my spot at the piano as I just backed up someone who had been wanting to play Home from Beauty And The Beast. Before I knew it, it was Cat's turn as she stood in the front of the classroom with a bright smile.

"Hi guys, I'm Caitlin Summers but my two best friends call me Cat. I was born in California but moved here when I was nine years old and met the boy that I fell in love with Sam Wilson-" I saw everyone in the room gasp including the boy in question and I smiled at my best friend being equally proud of them both. "when he sat next to me in class and became my designated neighbor for the rest of the year. My three facts about me are that I actually can't swim anything but the butterfly which is really tragic considering where I had grown up. I'm insanely overprotective especially over my best friend Vivi since she's been hurt in the past and I'm pretty much her unpaid bodyguard. My final fact is that I am a purple belt in martial arts so that I could protect myself from my enemies and my best friend." Cat finished introducing herself to the class and I saw her small smile that she sent me a wink communicating with her eyes what she wanted.

"My all time favorite Broadway show is Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita, and my biggest dream role might sound a little bit ridiculous. It's the woman that Evita kicks out of the house since she wants to be Peron's old lover and she sings Another Suitcase In Another Hall. To be honest, I think that the role of Evita would more fit my Vivi than myself as jealous as I am." I laughed at my best friend as I started to play her favorite song but on the guitar.

 _"I don't expect my love affairs to last for long never fool myself that my dreams will come true. Being used to travel, I anticipate, but all the same I hate it.... wouldn't you? So what happens now? So what happens now? Where I am going to? Where am I going to? Time and time again I've said that I don't care. That I'm immune to gloom, that I'm hard through and through. But every time it matters all my words desert so anyone can hurt me and they do. So what happens now? So what happens now? Where am I going to? Where am I going to? Call in three months time and I'll be fine, I know. Well maybe not that fine, but I'll survive anyhow. I won't the recall the names and faces of this sad occasion, but that's consolation here and now. So what happens now? So what happens now? Where am I going to? Where am I going to? Don't ask anymore..."_  Just as Cat finished her song the bell rang for the end of class and I grabbed my bag.

"You two figure out where your relationship goes from here. I'll move on ahead. See you in science!!" I waved to my two best friends nearly walking right into Bucky.

"Woah there doll, where's the fire?" He asked me with a teasing smirk and I blushed slightly looking down at my feet.

"Umm well there's no fire, Sam and Cat finally got together and I'm heading up to science so that I can see who Walter has made my lab partner. Last year it was some blonde girl that ironically I don't even remember." Bucky laughed at my last comment starting to walk with me towards the science labs.

"They seriously weren't together this morning? That's really damn surprising. How long has Sam been in love with Cat?" I smiled to myself as I began to play with the straps that were on my backpack.

"Sam has been in love with Cat since we were in the eighth grade around the same time that I started dating Shane. I've been there for him through everything, figuring out his feelings, pinning over just about everything that she was doing some of it even disgusting let me tell you. I learned things about him that I never wanted to." I scrunched up my nose as Bucky just laughed at me again.

"I'm surprised that you hung around him for that long. Hopefully he intends to collect?" I nodded my head as I pushed a lock of hair behind my ear when I heard my phone buzz.

 _Sam to me: Knock 'em dead kiddo!! I can see you two laughing from back here. Don't be so nervous and fidgety, just be your adorable self that I already love like my sister!!_  I started to blush at the thoughts of Sam spying on me and Bucky and knew that he was right.

"You alright there doll? You're kinda spacing out." I shook myself trying to at the very least make for conversation.

"Sorry about that, a lot goes on inside my head. Typical aspie trait." I started to nervously fiddle with my fingers before Bucky's metal hand stopped my fidgeting.

"Just take some deep breaths Vi, you don't have to push yourself to talk if you don't want to. True, I want to learn all that I can about you but we'll get to that." Bucky's wink had me all kinds of flustered as I tried my hardest to not let him know that it did.

"Well what do you want to know?" I asked my new friend as we started to head up the stairs for the science labs.

"We'll start easy and work our way up. What's your favorite color?" I laughed slightly at the question and smiled at my new friend.

"My favorite color is like a sky blue, I work with a lot of colors though since I'm an artist my second favorite color is magenta. What's your favorite color?" I replied as Bucky smiled at me kindly and I could tell that just being myself around him was enough to make him happy.

"Mine's a forest green, the color of the grass almost. Your question is next." He reminded me and I thought about all the things that were racing through my head mostly was I worth all of this care and conversation but I took a deep breath and asked the first thing that came my mind.

"Coffee or hot chocolate?" I smacked my forehead and was about to say something back in retaliation to take that back possibly but he was already answering the question.

"A little bit odd but I'm a coffee person. You're a hot chocolate person, aren't you babydoll?" I nodded my head the pet name making my cheeks flush with a light pink that I was hoping he wouldn't notice.

"I am actually a hot cocoa person, coffee makes me act really weird. If you don't believe me just ask Cat or Sam they have a story with me involving that devil beverage that they find hilarious and I find highly embarrassing." I mentioned to my new friend as he just laughed me while throwing me the next question.

"What was your favorite cartoon when you were a little kid?" I smiled brightly as I walked through the door that Bucky was holding open for me.

"Spongebob, that's the easiest question in the world. I still love cartoons like Steven Universe and Gravity Falls more mature things than the stuff I watched with my dad. I will watch old episodes of Spongebob, seasons one through three were easily the best. My favorite as a kid was Sandy since she was a female scientist and that's what I wanted to be when I was younger. Now that I'm older, I find Plankton to be absolutely hysterical." I listed off all my childhood cartoons that I had watched when I was younger though it was  a ton of Spongebob.

"My favorite cartoon as a kid was kind of more humiliating but I was an easy kid, my favorite show was Fairly Odd Parents. It was funny to me and I can still quote the characters as tragic as it is. I do love seasons one through three of Spongebob, but my favorite is Squidward by so much that it's ridiculous. He's one of the most relatable for me, and I can easily see him as myself when it's early in the morning and Stevie is super hyperactive." Bucky responded and I smiled at my friend with a bright laugh.

"Alright, who is your favorite actor?" I asked Bucky who seemed to think about it for a moment.

"He's more of a comedian than anything else but I have an immense admiration for Demetri Martin. I used to watch his stand up when I was in the hospital in grade school since one of the nurses loved watching him and encouraged me to laugh again since I had lost my arm." I looked back at my friend in a slight surprise since that was one of my mom's favorite comedians that she showed to me.

"That's my mom's favorite comedian!! I love Demetri Martin in We Bear Bears, I usually watch that cartoon with my mom since she loves Ice Bear and so do I. I've watched a ton of his stand up though too he is absolutely hilarious no matter how weird Cat and Sam tease me for it. My favorite actor and comedian is Robin Williams, same with my dad. He was like an uncle to me when I would watch his movies when I was younger. I just felt connected and he was always just kind of there for me as crazy as that sounds. I would get sick all the time when I was younger so when I would watch his movies he would make me feel better." Bucky smiled at me like he knew where I was coming from and I smiled back when a loud coughing interrupted our moment and I looked over to see Mr. Walter standing there with a slight smirk on his face that I instantly knew I was busted for.

"Morning Vivienne, I didn't think that I would have you in class again this year." I blushed slightly under the scrutiny of my favorite science teacher at this school.

"Like I would ever pass up an opportunity to have you teach me again Walter. Nice Looney Toons tie by the way." I teased him and he laughed back at me.

"You've seen this tie a million times already. I see that you've already made a new friend. That's good considering putting you with Sam or Cat would be pretty chaotic." I rolled my eyes at my favorite science teacher. That was technically his fault, he's the one who allowed his students to pick their best friends to be their lab partners in the first place.

"Oh would you let that go Walter, that was one time. And technically that was your own fault for allowing us to pick our own lab partners." I shot back at him and Bucky smiled at the both of us interacting as he introduced himself to our science teacher.

"I'm James but I've gone by Bucky ever since I was little. It's very nice to meet you sir." Walter immediately saw the metal arm and I could tell that he wanted to ask but thankfully didn't.

"The pleasure is all mine Bucky, we do have lab partners in this class and after my first year I've chosen most of them. But, I trust Vivienne since she's easily my best student. If you two want to work together than I won't stop you." Walter smiled at the both of us and I saw aBucky raise his eyebrow at me.

"What do you say Vi? Lab partner?" I shook his right hand that was extended to me with a small laugh at his sense of humor.

"Lab partners. Like I said, can't go any worse from last year when I told Walter to make that decision." I saw my teacher roll his eyes from the front of the room like he could hear us talking about him.

"I already apologized for that!! You'd think that I caused the unofficial armageddon with her. It was one bad lab partner and I let her switch so that she could be with her boyfriend after a few days something that I almost never do." I looked down at my feet sheepishly knowing that in the end that had done more harm than good.

"You worked with Shane in this class?" Bucky asked me crossing his arms and I instantly knew that we were in fact going to talk about this and there was no getting out of it.

"Yes I did. And when he dumped me a week after spring break it only got more awkward from there let me tell you." I tried my hardest to make a joke out of it but it just wasn't working with me.

"Awkward was the nice way of putting it!!" Walter hollered from the back room as I stuck my tongue out at my science teacher.

"No one's asking you Walter!!" I yelled back at him so that he could hear me still even though he was getting equipment for the class period so that he could show at least a few things that he would be working with.

"You have a really casual relationship with him don't you doll?" Bucky asked me with a soft smile and I nodded my head at the thought of my all time favorite teacher even if I did love Hutch and Green, Walter would always come out on top.

"I've always had a causal bond with science teachers even back in middle school and elementary school since most of them have heard of my dad. Walter was the only one that hadn't so maybe that's why I love him so much because he broke that mold that I was so used to. He always lets me pick my own lab partners while he chooses everybody else's for them after the first few days. For some reason Walter just spoke to me as a person, he's like an overgrown child as you have probably figured out from his tie he loves Looney Toons. He always asks to see my drawings that I've been working on for my friends and my family members and I've even made a couple for him. You see that sketch of Marvin Martian up there? I made that for his birthday last year." I explained to my friend as I gestured to the drawing that I had made and I saw Bucky's smile that lit up his eyes with almost awe.

"You're a really great artist, not that I'm surprised." I blushed at the praise but Walter came back out of his office and I could see him start to smile at the both of us and I could already sense him evilly plotting of how to get us together.

"Alright I get the next question, what is your favorite Looney Toons character?" Walter already knew the answer to this question and I said it the same time that he did.

"It's Daffy Duck." I glared over at my science teacher while he just whistled to himself trying to look conspicuous to the popular eye. I heard the bell ring as the class all shuffled in including Steve who was practically huffing for breath but smiled when he saw Bucky and I.

"I forgot where Sam told us the science lab was and I ended up clear on the other side of the school and some teacher had to tell me where it was. I had to run all the way here." Bucky looked at his best friend with immense concern and I couldn't help but find that to be the most adorable thing on the planet.

"Steve, why did you do that? It's your first day. Nobody would blame you if you were late for one damn class. Here take a seat." Bucky practically shoved his best friend into a seat and tried to help him regulate his breathing.

"Honestly Buck, I'm fine. I haven't had an attack all day. I have asthma by the way." He said to me offhandedly and I looked him with understanding since one of my neighbors back on Southampton had it as well.

"I know Stevie, I just worry about you. I should have walked with you so that you wouldn't have gotten lost." Bucky looked so guilty and I smiled at the way that he so clearly cared for his best friend in the entire world.

"You don't need to worry about me all the time Buck, I wanted you to have some alone time to talk with Vi." I blushed slightly at the comment and I saw Bucky smile easily at me.

"Good morning my young scientists!! Most of you have had me in class unless you are transfer students to which my name is Mr. Walter and I teach the complicated science courses here at Mount Colombia High School. This class will be heavily complex but I have faith in all of you that you will be smart enough to handle yourselves. For starters today, let's pick out some lab partners shall we? I usually pull names out of a hat and that will be the person that you have to work with for the entire year unless you have an issue to which then talk to me." Mr. Walter explained but I just smiled softly to myself thinking that I already had the perfect lab partner.

"For starters... Steve Rogers and Shane Mendez." I mentally looked at my friend with sympathy knowing that this would be horrible for the poor guy.

"Sorry." I whispered to my friend as Bucky put an arm around his shoulders protectively.

"Don't lose your temper with him Steve, I can't have you getting beat up on the first day of school. He may be a massive dick but he's so much taller and stronger than you are so I'm just warning you." Bucky advised his best friend as he stood up with a look of sheer murder and hatred for my ex-boyfriend.

"Permission to switch Walter?" Shane asked him before he even sat down next to him at the lab table and I prayed that Shane wouldn't cause a scene.

"Depends, who do you want to work with Mendez?" Walter usually calls all of his students by first name, all except for Shane which he never really seemed to catch on to that factor or he just didn't care.

"Vi." Yeah, thanks for keeping it simple and I saw Mr. Walter's eyes grow cold towards my ex boyfriend.

"Sadly, Vivienne already has a lab partner that I've agreed to allow her to work with for the year. So you are going to have to learn to deal. And next time Mendez, talk to me privately before you bring up your sick perversions with my favorite student." Walter rubbed his temples and I smiled at my favorite teacher while Bucky let out a low whistle.

"He sure told him, I have so much more respect for this guy." I laughed at my friend and I started to bounce my leg while Mr. Walter went through all the other fifteen students that were in the classroom.

"Yeah, Mr. Walter is the most amazing science teacher that I think I've ever had. You should have seen the roastings that he gave Shane after he dumped me last year. He went full Howard Ashman on his ass and it was one of the funniest things that I have ever seen." I whispered back as Walter drew our attention back to the front of the room.

"Since this is a three day week, I give you this time to get to know your lab partners and Friday we'll go over materials that you will need for this class. Get to it!!" Walter ordered and I turned to my friend so that I could fully face him as I saw Steve struggling to not kill Shane over in the front row.

"So, who's Howard Ashman?" I mentally kicked myself because of course nobody knew who the hell he was that hadn't known me for years and heard this lecture thousands of times.

"He was a lyricist for Disney during the late eighties and mostly the middle of the nineties. He worked on the music for Little Mermaid and Beauty And The Beast mostly but did do a couple of songs that sticked with Aladdin. Sorry about that, I've been pretty much obsessed with him since I had to do a research project on him when I was in elementary school for my music class. He just spoke to me for some reason and Sam and Cat hate when I talk about him since they've heard it to death already." I gave him the short version and Bucky just smiled at me kindly not really judging me.

"I take it that the man had some anger issues?" I nodded my head with a small laugh at the memory of my research project.

"Pretty much yeah, I love him all the more for that reason though. He stood up for what he thought was right and I wish that I could do that. I wish that I could do a lot of things but one of them is definitely be strong enough to stand up for myself. Maybe that's why Howard spoke to me so much, because he's person that through everything I want to be. I admire that in a person, it's one of the reasons why Cat is my best friend since she always says what's on her mind." I reasoned and I leant my head down before Bucky gently lifted my chin up.

"Okay, I have a question, why do you call me doll? Is there a specific reason?" I asked Bucky who seemed to remember something in his eyes they went distant and somewhat sad for a moment.

"My grandfather was around during the fifties and was a part of world war two. He fell in love with my grandma Margret who was a nurse while he was away. That was his nickname for her and I grew up hearing it, I promised myself that when I met a girl that I have that instant connection with that I would bring back the nickname to keep in the family. It's also where I earned my nickname Bucky, I got it from my grandpa when I had buck teeth. Thank god you missed that, I got my braces off last year so you never had to see that. My grandma past away two summers ago and my grandpa is still alive but he's growing weaker. He's had to move in with my mom, Steve and me. The reason why Steve moved in with me and my mom is because he had nowhere else to go when his parents died in a car crash when he was eight so we're practically brother's." I listened to my friend's story about how the nicknames in his family came around and I knew that his family meant the world to him.

"I'm so sorry to hear about your grandma and grandpa but that's a really beautiful story. I hope that I'll have the chance to meet him before he passes away. I was wondering about your nickname too, most of mine come from my parents. Vivi came from Cat and Sam since they couldn't say my name when I was ten and Cat had a speech impediment that she still kind of has. I had to have braces too even though it doesn't look like it. I sucked my thumbs when I was a little girl so that's why there's that space over next to my two front teeth. Humiliating but it's the truth, I'm fine with it. My mom wants me to patch it up before my graduation so that I can graduate with all my teeth. It's not a huge problem but I was picked on because of it profusely." Bucky just smiled at me and I could tell that having this conversation meant a lot to him.

"What nicknames do your parents call you?" There was so many but I would have to weed the bad ones from the good ones in this case.

"Well there's your typical ones baby girl, angel, lovely. But, my favorite one is the one that my dad still calls me to this day, little love. He used to call me that more often than he would call me by my actual name." I mentioned listing off my favorites and I saw his smile widen when I said little love. It made me feel happy that he accepted that part of me would always be different and that I would be shy.

"That's extremely adorable that he calls you that. So your dream is to work with him?" I nodded my head with a fervent passion that I could feel in my heart.

"That's absolutely right!! I want to help my dad by making the world a better place and changing it for a person who has lost all hope of ever being whole again. I know how it feels to have pieces of you gone and I don't want anybody else to feel that way since it's not a good feeling. I want to help my dad by making prosthetics for people to live better lives and this includes you. I want to help you because I can see how much your arm hurts you and it shouldn't be that way." I told him passionately and he looked at me with surprise and slight awe.

"You don't gotta do that for me babydoll, it's not that bad. It could always be worse." I shook my head at my friend knowing that even though he was protesting right now that he would see things my way eventually.

"Don't talk that way!! I only want to help you out Bucky, I can't stand the people that I care about being hurt and you're one of those people. I don't trust easily but for some reason I want to trust you. My dad can help you, in fact he'll want to when I video chat with him tonight." I objected and Bucky looked at me with awe and smiled at me.

"You're really something doll, are you sure that your real?" I laughed at my friend getting out my sketchbook so that I could start drawing how I wanted the arm to look.

"Pretty sure and I'm not that special, just a caring person in this world that really needs one. For someone who's been abused before I just want all my friends to stop hurting too. There's a lot that I can't do to help you, but this is one of the things that I excel at." I looked back over at Steve during this moment to see how he was doing with Shane and they looked to be in a passionate argument. About what I couldn't tell you. Walter was busy helping other groups to worry about them and I wanted to know what they were arguing about.

"Still I happen to think that you're amazing. You don't need to do this for me but if it's something that you really want to do for me then who am I to say no. What are you drawing?" He asked me trying to lean over so that he could see what I was sketching.

"A design for your arm. Do you want it to be metal or neutral?" I asked my friend who instantly answered.

"Neutral please, I'm getting sick and tired of being stared at. I've been looked at funny for almost nine years and this is where I draw the line." I smiled at my friend trying to draw exactly what he was asking for even though arms were not the easiest thing.

"That would make sense, I could design tattoos as well, I've done that before. If that's something that you're interested in than my dad can just airbrush them on." Bucky scooted his chair closer to mine so that he could look at my drawing.

"Hmm... that does sound actually really cool. Hey, hold on, is Stevie arguing with your ex-boyfriend?" He asked me nudging my shoulder so that I could look up to see pretty much the same thing that I had seen about two minutes ago just with Steve red in the face and clenching something to have to hold himself back and judging by the smirk on my exes face it was as though he was winning the argument.

"They've been like for the past five minutes actually. Almost makes me wonder what in the world they're talking about--" I was cut off by Steve losing the last of his temper with Shane.

"You don't get to talk to her that way!! She never did anything to you but try to be a good girlfriend. You're the one who decided to treat her like garbage and now that you see she's happy with my best friend you want her back suddenly well you're not going to get her back without a fight!!" I covered my ears as Sam came over to our table. He put an arm around my shoulders comfortingly and I smiled at him though weakly as Bucky just looked completely confused and like he wanted to hug me so badly but he didn't know what would make me feel worse.  

"You're okay, he's never coming within a hundred foot radius of you ever again. I won't stand for it. Sometimes you're really too nice to people." My best friend comforted and I looked back at him with slight thankfulness.

"T-Thanks Sam. I-I think I-I'm good now." I stuttered out and he looked at me with a raised eyebrow as I just flipped to a new coloring page and started to draw Ice Bear since he always made me feel better.

"What are you drawing?" Bucky asked me having moved back to his original spot since the moment was broken.

"Ice Bear. He makes me feel better, I don't really know why exactly. We both suck with people maybe that's what makes me feel better." I tried to make it into a joke but Bucky looked at me hurt that I was talking about myself in such a horrible way.

"You're not horrible with people, we we're doing great up until Stevie lost his temper. I'll be right back, I'm going to go make sure that he's okay." I nodded my head against my sketchbook until I heard the sound of sneakers that I would know anywhere.

"What do you want Shane?" I asked my ex-boyfriend before he even opened up his mouth to start speaking to me as I wished that Bucky was still here when I started to draw Ice Bear's eyes.

"What are you drawing?" I glared up at him not really caring what he thought or said about me at this point in my life.

"Ice Bear from We Bare Bears, it's a cartoon on CN. Why do you care?" I spat back at my ex as he held his hands up in defense.

"All I'm asking for is a second chance. I know that I've made mistakes in the past but I'm hoping that we can move forward from your ways--" I scoffed and rolled my eyes wanting to just plug in my earbuds and tune him out.

"My ways, excuse me dear sir, I didn't cheat on you with the entire cheerleading squad." I saw Shane's eyes grow cold but before he could say anything back at me I felt this looming presence. I knew that it was Sam because he put an arm around my shoulder supportively.

"Are you having problems with this ass, sis?" I laughed at my best friend as Bucky came back carrying Steve on his back since after yelling at Shane the poor kid had promptly passed out.

"What the hell is this?" Shane was dangling my sketchbook in front of me and showing me the page with Bucky's design on it.

"And why is it any of your business if I should tell you or not?" I asked him in return as he ripped up the page and continued to rip out every page of my sketchbook until Sam just grabbed it from his hands after three pages.

"That's enough Shane. Haven't you done enough damage to her already? Wasn't raping her bad enough? Leaving her humiliated wasn't enough? When will it ever be too far for you?" Bucky stopped dead in his tracks and I froze in place turning to my best friend in sheer horror.

"Vi, I-" I ran out of the room with my backpack before he could say anything else with Walter coming after me.

"When exactly were you going to tell me about this?" I started to sob crashing against a wall and curling into a tiny ball of tears and anxiety.

"I-I-I thought that he wouldn't say anything. I-I-I never wanted anybody to know the extent of what he did to me. Didn't want anyone to worry." Walter stopped following me and slinked down the wall next to me with a hand on my knee.

"I care about Vivienne, this kind of stuff, you can't keep it to yourself. You care so much about others you neglect yourself. While this is almost guaranteed to cause an uproar, don't blame Sam. He was only trying to protect you." Mr. Walter advised me and I heard the door open and close while looking up and seeing Bucky coming down the hallway like a man on a mission for protection. Protection of the person that he had failed to protect before he even knew her.

"I'll let you two talk this situation out. If you'll excuse me, I have to go ring Mendez's neck a couple of times." Mr. Walter stood and went inside the classroom and Bucky took his spot though a few feet away when I scooted worried that he would be angry with me.

"Can you come back over here doll? I promise that I won't hurt you. I'm not angry with you Vivienne." That was the full name, this meant business. I scooted back over to where he was sitting and Bucky wrapped both of his arms around me though the left was slightly stiff. His right hand rubbed soothing motions and I started to make an unconscious almost purring noise at the feeling of his arms wrapped around me so comfortingly.

"I-I'm sorry you have to protect me and that I can't protect myself." I apologized to my friend and he just continued to make soft noises to try and quiet me down and stop me from crying.

"I don't mind having to protect you dollface, in fact I take pride in protecting you. I just wish that I could have done it sooner and you didn't have to date such an dickwad your first time around. Protecting the people that I care the most about is what I do, sort of like how you need to help those you care about I need to protect them. I know that I hardly know you at all and you don't know me very well but the thing is, I want to. More than anything. What makes you smile, what makes you laugh, what makes you tick, what makes you blush which I've already figured out it's over compliments and me calling you doll." I blushed again at the nickname to which Bucky laughed at me.

"But why waste all that energy on someone who's not worth it? Why even bother spending time with somebody so broken?" I asked my friend and he looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

"Have you seen my dead arm? True, that can be easily fixed by your brilliant mind combined with your father's. I have really awful nightmares about the incident at least once a week and more often than not can't get back to sleep again. Just because your broken doesn't mean that we can't fix each other." Bucky advised me and I started to cry swallowing down all those fears and all that anxiety.

"I-I-I have really god awful nightmares too. Like in my dreams he'll come after me again for another round and I wake up in a cold sweat every time and then I'm too nervous to go back to sleep. Last night I was lucky and my dreams weren't tainted but usually they come after me." I curled into Bucky's side comfortably resting my head between the juncture of his shoulder and just taking in calming breaths of his sent. He smelled like home and comfort to me and I probably smelled like my strawberry and blueberry body wash to him.

"Here's how we fix that, after you get enough energy to go in there, we're going to swap numbers so that way we can still talk throughout the day. If you do have a nightmare tonight, I don't care what time it is, you call me. You'll just have to repay the same favor. Deal?" I nodded my head that was against his neck still at this point and stuck my hand out for a shake. What I wasn't expecting was for him to turn my hand over so that he could press a kiss to my knuckles softly. Shane almost never did that after the first year of our relationship. He spent the eighth grade wooing me over with gifts and affectionate kisses that made my head spin. Everything with Bucky though was amplified by a million light years. He made me feel safer than Shane ever did and was far more caring towards me.

"You make cute little purring sounds when your content did you know that?" I shook my head at my friend because this was the first time that I had ever done this with anybody.

"This is the first time that I've ever done that with anybody. I guess that's just another thing that's different with you. I never really loved for Shane but thought that if I left the relationship that he would come at me ten times harder. I liked him enough to make the charade real for both him and myself that everything was fine." I said to my friend or boyfriend I didn't know what he was at this point.

"For the moment let's consider this a pre-relationship okay? We're halfway there but we still want to learn more about one another. Let's start with music. Can you play me some H.E.A.T?" I nodded my head with a firm nature as I pulled my phone out of my pocket seeing a text from Sam.

_Sam to me: I'm so so so sorry Vivienne, I honestly hadn't meant to say anything!! I swear I didn't mean to it just slipped out because I was angry that he still wasn't leaving you alone even after all that he had already done to you. Are you okay?_

"He really cares about you a lot doesn't he?" I nodded my head going into my songs and going to H.E.A.T picking out one of my all time favorites, best of the broken.

_"Welcome, now, say goodbye if you're good you're gonna die. You gotta scream, shout knock 'em out, feeling like your dynamite. You get one shot, double up before you're back out in the rain. You got fifteen on the screen, then we'll take you back again. Ay, ay, ay, we're going down, down, down. Ay, ay, ay we're going down, down, down welcome, now, say goodbye. Good men will be sacrificed we are the industry, running free. Wearing rings of cyanide we are the vultures in the night. Leeching on your coked up brain you got one shot, toughen up. Before you hit the streets again come join us... Ay, ay, ay, we're going down, down, down. They got the best of me now I'm the best of the broken. They keep on breaking me now I'm the best of the broken now I'm the best of the broken. They got the best of me now I'm the best of the broken welcome here, have no fear If you're bad you will survive. You gotta scream, shout, knock em' out gonna burn this mother down you're in a plastic hallway. Dealing with the thieves again you're just a broken vagabond living like a runaway train. Ay, ay, ay, we're going down, down, down. They got the best of me now I'm the best of the broken they keep on breaking me now I'm the best of the broken now I'm the best of the broken. They got the best of me now I'm the best of the broken. Ay, ay, ay, we're going down, down, down. They got the best of me now I'm the best of the broken they keep on breaking me now I'm the best of the broken now I'm the best of the broken. They got the best of me now I'm the best of the broken..."_

"They sound kind of different, but it's a good different. I never would have expected that they would be your favorite band." I laughed at Bucky as the bell rang for art class and the students all stormed out of Mr. Walter's class in a rampage except for Steve who walked out of there with a somewhat smile on his face.

"You two just missed the roasting of a lifetime in there. I'll tell you about in art class." Steve said offering me and Bucky a hand up off the ground. I remembered that I was supposed to give Bucky my phone number so I wrote it down on a piece of notebook paper and kissed his cheek before going off to art class. I heard another buzz from my phone knowing that it was probably Sam wondering why I hadn't texted him back.

_Sam to me: Are you pissed at me? I wouldn't blame you if you are but please don't be mad at me for long._

"Wait for me!!" I heard Steve call after me and I stopped walking up the hallways of my high school.

"What's up Steve? Did you need something?" I asked my friend and he nodded his head walking in step with me down the stairs back down to Hutch's classroom.

"I did yeah, I wanted to know what your intentions are with my best friend." I let out a breath of air thinking for a moment about what I had truly wanted.

"I want to date him Steve, those are my intentions with him. I don't think that I deserve him though, I'm better off alone." I moved a lock of hair behind my ear and Steve just shook his head at me.

"You need to work on that amount of self respect that you clearly don't have for yourself. You're a really great person so far Vivi and I'm good at sniffing out the assholes and people who I don't believe deserve my best friend. He's been broken more on the outside while you had your self confidence slowly chipped away until your left with the person that you are today."

"I want to be enough for somebody, that's my end goal for life. Is to finally be enough for somebody to want to cherish for the rest of their days. I know it sounds crazy since I've only met him this morning but I feel like it's Bucky that I'm meant to be with." I hoped to God that didn't sound crazy to him but he nodded his head at me as if he understood what I was trying to say to him.

"He was telling me the same thing earlier, that when he shook your hand it was almost as though he could see his future with you. Did you see something like that?" I shook my head animatedly but I knew that we would be talking about this once class started and we started texting.

"No I didn't, I think I was too busy noticing how perfectly his hand fit through my own. I believe that there are soulmates in this world. It's kind of like Origin Of Love style, where your cut from the same cloth. That song just always spoke to me since that was the type of love that I have been waiting for my entire life." I deduced and Steve started to smile at me before a bubble of laughter sprang out from his chest.

"Buck loves that movie, it's one of his favorites in the entire Barnes movie collection. I've had to watch it with him so many times that even I could sing all the songs on cue even though I'm not a very good singer." I laughed even harder at Steve's thoughts knowing that I would have to watch that movie with Bucky in the near future.

"So does my dad, he'll listen to the soundtrack while he works. He often jokes that he hates me for seeing the live stage version with the incomparable Lena Hall and Neil Patrick Harris. It changed my life though, so I'll always have a secret admiration for those characters." I mentioned to my friend as he held the door open for me to enter the art room.

"Buck really wanted to see it but Anna, that's his mom, didn't have enough money to take him that year and the next birthday the show was closed. It broke Bucky's heart to not see his favorite songs performed right in front of his eyes. I wanted so badly to just sneak us in near the back just so he could see the sets and the costumes." Steve had this huge heart for his best friend and I knew that he would constantly be working towards being friends with me in order to get me and Bucky together in the end.

"That sucks, it was one of the most incredible things that I have ever seen in my entire life. I was really inspired by what Lena Hall did to Yitzhak. She made him her own with a sense of personality and this flair to her that I instantly just gravitated towards. It doesn't really help that I saw it during Freshman year here and that's when things with Shane first started to turn south for the winter." I heard my phone buzz and lifted my butterfly phone case out of my pocket. It was a text from an unknown number but I knew by the nickname already who it was from.

 _Unknown number: It's me doll, is it possible to miss you already?_ I instantly saved my contacts to a nickname that I would probably stick with for him.

_Me to darling <3: It is extremely possible but I do love art class. Hutch is awesome and he's a really great teacher. Where did you have to wander off to? _

"Texting Buck? You have kind of this lovesick smile on your face." I laughed at my friend who was sitting across the table from me when I hit my head hard on the table.

"I don't have a sketchbook anymore!! Shane ripped my old one to pieces!!" Steve was already one step ahead of me and handed me a massive book that held over three hundred pages.

"Just keep one of mine, I always tend to buy in bulk so you can keep that one. I have an extra back in my desk at Bucky's house. I take it that he told about James, his grandpa?" I nodded my head with a small smile that was faint but it still spoke volumes to the weight of the conversation.

"He did, I asked him if the nickname that he's been calling me all day, doll means anything to him. He told me that it was the nickname that his grandpa called his grandma up until she passed away. I hope that I will have the opportunity to meet him." I mentioned to Steve as he smiled over at me before his eyes lit up with a question.

"Can I see some of those pictures of Southampton again so I could maybe paint them?" I nodded my head pulling out my phone so that my friend could see them.

"Wait, I'll just text them to you so you don't have to keep staring at my phone." I informed the boy who laughed at me writing his number down on a sheet of paper. I plugged in the number to my phone and the nickname that I wanted to give to him.

_Me to Artist boy: Images sent https://goo.gl/images/3Vi2df_

"Will that work Steve?" I asked my friend who nodded his head fervently as Mr. Hutcherson started the class.

"Morning artists!! I hope that you all had a lovely summer away from the pressure's of learning and having to interact with people. For today’s project I want you to draw something that would mean something for somebody in your life. It can be something that you believe that could be useful, be beautiful or just be a funny inside jokes between the two of you." Mr. Hutcherson gave us that days project and I instantly set to work on Bucky's arm again but this time it would be better since now I had more time.

"Are you drawing an arm?" Steve asked me slightly confused about what the significance of an arm might be for somebody.

"Yes I am, I'm designing just a model for a robotic arm that my dad will hopefully fully design. I wanted to do something to help Bucky out so this was my idea. And before you ask, I already talked to him and he was actually perfectly fine with it." I felt the buzz from my pocket and I instantly flushed thinking that was the speak of the devil moment.

 _Darling: I have math, god I hate and suck at math!! Tell me that you're at least good at it. Maybe you can tutor me ;)_ I rolled my eyes at my friend that was moving it's way to be a relationship.

_Me: It's in no way science, history or art those are my three best but I am really good at math. I would actually be happy to help with anything that you don't understand math or not._

"What's Bucky up to?" I laughed at how easily Steve could read me or maybe I was just obvious.

"He's dying in math right now, not my best subject but I can still do really well if I put my heart into it. My problem is that it's boring as hell and I can't get invested in boring things." I reasoned and Steve started to laugh at me as I continued to draw my arm that was neutral but than I had an idea.

 _Me: Is there anything significant to you that makes you who you are? Maybe like a type of flower or something?_ I texted Bucky as I started to think of what he might really like.

 _Darling: Odd question but my grandma really loved cherry blossoms so she past that down onto me. They are just kind of calming, I've been to Japan during their falling periods when my grandma was still alive. That was actually her dying wish to see a cherry blossom in the spring in Japan._ I started to sketch the popular tree and I wondered if his passport was still good.

"Are you drawing a cherry blossom tree? His grandma loved those so much!! That would mean the world to him, he'll love it. We went to Japan for his grandmother's dying wish and I LOVED them. We saw so many things while we were down there but I think that seeing the cherry blossoms just slowly falling from the hotel window where we were all staying was more than enough for me. We don't exactly travel a lot but this summer we went up to Canada since that was where James wanted to go since he is slowly losing his staying power." I saw Steve look down in slight sadness and I wanted to do something to cheer him up but I had no idea of what to do with this situation.

_Me: That sounds absolutely breathtaking!! I would have loved to see them falling in their natural habitat. I've always been interested in going to Japan if for nothing else than to buy a ton of merchandise for all my favorite anime's. I don't watch nearly as much as I used to but my rebellious phase was basically me just watching anime. I didn't go fully on angsty teenager at least I don't think I did._

"What is the one thing that you have always wanted for your birthday? Sam mentioned this morning that it was close." I looked down at my drawing that I had made for my friend but sighed happily.

"I wanted to see my father again but this year I'm finally doing it. He sent me and one other person who I'm still not sure who I'm going to take yet it'll probably have to be Bucky since my dad will most likely have the arm finished by then." I said quietly hoping that I wasn't blushing but I knew that I was already.

 _Darling: Aww, your rebellious streak sounds adorable, I probably would have just joined since that was a huge part of my own rebellious phase. Alright, I get the next question, what are the movies that you watch when you've had the longest day of your life and just need to laugh for a little while?_ I smiled at the question as I began to type out my answer.

_Me: Usually on the extremely long days you'll find me with either a tub of ice cream or pizza with possibly popcorn since I sort of have a stress eating problem. The movies that are always there for me when I need to just forget about life and laugh for a little while are Nine to Five and Princess Bride mainly those two are the ones that I'll choose. There's just something about Nine to Five that just always makes me and my mom laugh, I'll also probably marathon We Bare Bears if I feel like just watching something calming and laughing at Ice Bear. What about yourself?_

"What are you two talking about?" I smiled over at Steve who was twirling a pencil trying to get the perfect angle.

"Just about favorite long day media, like the stuff we turn on after the longest days. My stuff is a eighties movie called Nine to Five with Dolly Parton since I just love her in general, Princess Bride of course and I love a cartoon called We Bare Bears." I listed off all my things and got a buzz from my phone.

_Darling: My biggest long day are two anime's, two movies and actually two albums. The animes that I'll watch are a few episodes of Ouran High for it's wacky and quirky characters that always made me nearly laugh myself to death and the other anime is Space Dandy. As stupid as Space Dandy gets it always holds itself in a very high regard and ALWAYS makes Steve and my mom laugh too so we'll often watch it as a family. The movies are Hedwig of course since my favorite songs for musical theater were in that movie and same as you I gotta say Princess Bride. I love it's characters and sometimes I'll even find myself laughing at the magnet on my fridge that's of Vincini saying inconceivable. The albums that make me laugh are These Are Jokes by of course Demetri Martin and then A Wild And Crazy Guy by Steve Martin. I just realized that these are both Martins, weeeirrrd._

_Me: That is really weird, love both men though and they always make me laugh for different reasons. Alright, favorite character from a cartoon in today's day and age._

_Darling: Oh god, that really is the impossible question, I'm gonna go with Mabel from Gravity Falls. She reminds me a lot of Stevie once you really get to know him._

_Me: I love that character!! I really want to say someone from a past cartoon that I grew up with but my favorite cartoon character ever is probably Pearl from Steven Universe and Ice Bear is like behind her._ I heard the bell ring over our heads and put my sketchbook into my backpack ready for gym class and then history and then finally at the end of the day, math.

"Ready for the track? Usually that's the first day." I asked my friend who turned even whiter than he was usually and I saw him taking harsh breaths.

"Steve? Breathe man, breathe, crap I need to text Bucky." I reached for my phone but I could already see the man in question shoot up and start getting through the crowds like a man on a mission to help his best friend. He was in front of his best friend in a moment calming him down and trying to get him to breathe easier.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't know that would happen. I only asked a question. I'll just go." I pushed a lock of hair behind my ear before Bucky stopped me from moving.

"You're fine doll, just give him a minute and he'll be back to normal. What exactly did you ask him?" I looked down at my sneakers with a nervous twitch.

"I asked him if he was ready for the track during gym and he just started to breathe faster." I told Bucky what I had said and Steve was finally calming down and breathing through his inhaler.

"Sorry for scaring you there Vivi, I really didn't mean to. When you said track I just started to panic." I looked at my new friend with both sympathy and a touch of understanding.

"It's alright, I have anxiety too. We'll suffer together and I'll walk with you guys unless Sam or Cat challenges me to a race. I'm captain of the women's track and field during the springtime. Oh speaking of springtime!!" I reached into my bag pulling out the sketchbook that Steve had given me and showing Bucky what I had been working on during the last class period. Bucky looked at the picture that I had drawn for him with stunned eyes that seemed to be welling up with tears before he put one arm around my shoulders.

"If my left shoulders wasn't such a deadweight right now I would be swinging you around babydoll. Nobody's ever done anything like this for me before, I love it so much!!" Bucky looked so happy with the design that I had made for my the first draft of his arm.

"I told you that he would love it, she was nervous once she asked what your favorite type of plant was. I loved watching the cherry blossom leaves fall to the ground and perusing all the stores with you while everyone else went off to their own thing." It seemed like this vacation meant a lot to both of these men and I smiled to myself that they were both so different yet so similar.

"You would have loved it there doll, it was one of the most beautiful things in the entire world. One question, how am I going to get this hunk of junk off?" He gestured to his left arm and I moved a piece of my hair behind my ear nervously knowing that would be one of the questions that he had.

"Well, my dad, he invited me and one other person up to Southampton for my birthday. He could give it to you then if you are interested in that?" I mentioned softly to my friend that I was beginning to have even stronger feelings for.

"I would love to do that, meet your father and get this piece of trash off of my body and be able to properly hug you." I blushed when he winked at me and Steve scrunched up his nose in slight distaste.

"You two are really disgusting, like the most disgusting and sickly sweet that I have ever seen in my entire life." Bucky stuck his tongue out at his best friend and hip bumped him as he slightly stumbled.

"Alright, tell me more about yourself, I feel like Buck knows everything and I know nothing." Steve told me and I laughed slightly trying to think of something that they both didn't know about me then it hit me.

"I am fluent in three different languages two common and one of them has a little bit of backstory. The two normal ones are Spanish and French but then my third language is something that I grew an interest in when the Disney movie Moana came out in New Zealand last year. It's not as weird as it sounds and my dad can speak it too since he was interested around the same time that I was. It's a language called Māori, it's a native language for the New Zealand people and it spoke to me when I first heard the version of Shiny that Jemaine Clement did again called _Piata Mai Nei._ It's one of the easiest languages out there and it was a ton of fun to bond with my dad through that language." I explained to my two new friends as they both looked at me in slight shock.

"This is the kind of thing that requires proof to see if you really can do it." Bucky requested and I used one of my favorite phrases to try to and fluster him as payback for all that he has done to me earlier and right now.

 _"He kanohi ataahua koe..."_ I watched as confusion mixed with awe went across his features as I nearly go crashing into a door that was opened right in front of us.

"That was beautiful, what does it mean?" I smiled at Steve's question turning to my blue eyed beauty that I had just complimented in a foreign language.

"It means you have beautiful eyes." Bucky looked embarrassed at being put on the spot and Steve laughed at his best friend giving me a high five.

"Nice going!! I think that Buck has a new weakness, it's the girl of his dreams speaking in different languages." Bucky started to change a whole new shade of red and I looked at him slightly concerned.

"I'm fine, I'm good. That was highly overwhelming that you can speak that beautiful language. I can't even imagine French or Spanish." I knew just the thing that would push his buttons the most.

 _"Je ressens une connexion entre nous."_ This time Bucky legitimately tripped over his own two feet and almost fell on his face had Steve not caught the end of his backpack.

"You are officially evil, I know that was some kind of compliment towards me but I have no idea what it is." Bucky muttered running a hand through his hair and I looked up at him utterly apologetic.

"Did I take things too far on accident? I was only trying to give you a taste of your own damn medicine. You've been making me flustered all day and I have been nothing but a blushing mess. For the record, that translation is I'm feeling a connection between us." Bucky's face flamed again and Steve looked at me in both awe and humor as he held the door open to the gym for both me and Bucky.

"You two are really something, what's the translation of at least the title for Your Welcome in Moana?" Steve asked me and I smiled to myself and ended up hearing a bubbling laugh.

" _Mihi Mai_ _Ra_ it translates to congratulate me, and then shiny which is my favorite in Māori is _Piata Mai Nei_ as I've already mentioned. That's probably my favorite Disney soundtrack since I have a love and admiration for Lin Manuel Miranda, he's like the modern day Howard Ashman. I have always wanted to dance shiny in either Māori or English, probably Māori since it's a really beautiful language." I said to the boys as I started to hum my favorite villain song that had been released in the past five years.

"I'd really love to see that, why did you stop dancing to begin with?" Bucky asked me and I looked down in slight shame.

"Shane told me that it was a pointless hobby so I should just give up. He also thought that learning foreign languages in my free time was really weird. Then again, he's an idiot so what does he know." I saw Sam standing outside the gym dribbling a basketball. He was basically our sports man always practicing something.

"He's wrong, about the languages. I think that they are really beautiful despite how flustered I get when you use them with me. It's mostly because you sound so confident, like you know exactly what your saying and that it's right." Sam stopped dribbling his basketball and walked over to me and Bucky and Steve.

"I'm not mad at you Sam, if you think that I was than you're wrong. I could never be mad at you that's impossible. You were just trying to look out for me and did what you thought was right." I hugged my best friend who easily hugged me back.

"I know but I'm still sorry, it wasn't my place to use that insult. Are you okay?" I nodded my head against my best friends shoulder.

"I'm fine no need to worry about me. I'm not exactly looking forward to what's ahead but I have my own army to stand with me." I reminded my best friend who laughed at me letting me go from the hug.

"I take it that she's demonstrated her languages for the both of you, my favorite is when she uses Māori with her dad since they both learned it together. She can also sing in that language as well both You're Welcome and Shiny. I've been waiting for her to get back to dancing so that she can dance to _Piata Mai Nei._ It's pretty much shiny but sung way more like ballet than it original was which is her original dance." I blushed at the confidence that Sam was exhibiting for me and I smiled to myself.

"What's it matter if people don't understand it? You do and that's what it's important, it's a song that you love. You should be able to show it off the way that you want to. Besides everyone knows the lyrics to Shiny since that movie was really popular. At least I do and so does Bucky since we've watched that movie a lot because his mom loves Disney movies." Steve deduced and I smiled when Bucky put an arm around my shoulders.

"He's absolutely right babydoll, you should do the song that means the most to you. If it's Shiny in that language that means the most to you then I say do it. The beat is already a bit more slow and I could almost see him doing ballet to his own song if he could." We all laughed at Bucky as we had to separate so that we could get ready for the day of gym class. We all had lockers from first year that we set up and I saw Cat was already dressed down.

"Hey slacker, you're running late." I rolled my eyes at Cat's comment as I opened up my locker with a small smile at my best friend.

"I was talking with Bucky ma'am sorry to displease you." I threw back at her as she smiled leaning up against my locker as I changed into a pair of shorts and my H.E.A.T tank top that I had made in a shop in the mall myself.

"What were you talking about with Bucky?" Cat wiggled her eyebrows at me as I nudged my best friend playfully.

"I was telling him about the languages that I can speak." I tied my sneakers as Cat shook her head at me for keeping it short and sweet.

"Did he think that it was weird? What languages did you speak for him?" I laughed at the fact that Cat was asking me so many questions about my love life and I was tempted to just keep her out of the loop.

"I did a little bit of both Māori and French both got him equally flustered. It was really funny but at the same time it made me feel powerful that I could something like that. He didn't think that they were weird at all but in fact thought that they adorable and amazing." I made sure that my sneakers were double knotted so that I wouldn't have to worry about it later.

"You did Māori?! That one's my favorite, what did you say to him?" I smiled to myself knowing that Cat wouldn't understand me if I didn't give her a direct translation.

 _"He kanohi ataahua koe..._ which means that he has beautiful eyes." Cat looked at me with both shock and awe at the fact that I could speak that easily to somebody in a different language.

"Damn, your good girl!! Come on, it's time for the track!!" Cat cheered and I easily followed my best friend out the door humming Mihi Mai Rae and doing a little bit of tap routine so that I could occupy myself while waiting for the gym teacher.

"What are you doing?" Steve asked me coming out of the lockers actually before Bucky and I turned to him stopping my dancing.

"Just being a goofball and dancing to no music while humming a song." Steve sat next to me as we waited for the rest of our friends.

"Can you sing one of the songs to Moana in that language?" He asked me and I nodded my head starting to sing Piata Mei Nei.

 _"Ko Tamatoa e hanatu ake nei, te rua pāpaka noa kua puta kua inaianei ko awahau rā a nehe!! Tē arohia rā ngā tauākī e kia pona koe ki a koe anō 'temea hoki ko aua tauākī e teka noa!! Kia pīata mai nei kāti hei!! Kia pīata mai nei mehe tākaki hirahira e aue, e te tau. Ika tamu-tamu-tamu arumia waretia te wirawira au... anei kama-kama-kama ana ki taku nei mātria mmm taku tina. Ara mai rā taku tina āna nā māui-tiki-āhua e rari nei tēnei horihori-tupia au kua hē rawa te tū me te whiu nera-nā  i riro ai tō pīhoka mōhau rā aka mihi nui e tama me tō kiri maku mako ko tāua tahi kua whakairongia te hunaia tēnā!! Piata mai nei tirohia tēnei whatu taimana wiwira kia piata mai nei O tū-tauā hoki ka turakinataku anga he taikaha riria mai, mai, mai koe e kore au e hinga nā ki te tipua (hikina...) ka mate mai, mai, mai koe ka wetewerekina nā tō manawa kua motungia mamao rawatia koe i te aroha o tōhau rahinga koe, i whai kaha hoi, kīhai i kaha rawa māui!! Me haua rā tō tau kia tangi te ngawi! Kia piata mai nei [ko] awahau rā tō kitenga mutunga haere rā! kia pi-ata mai nei ka horomia koe [e] te kai whakatika i ō kupu koha! tē rite tō piata mai nei! ki au piata mai nei!!"_ I knew that he wouldn't understand a lot of what I had just said other than the fact of the repeating Piata Mai Nei.

"That was really different but I really liked it, you have a really beautiful singing voice." Steve complimented and I saw Bucky there standing right in front of us frozen to the spot.

"I think you officially broke Buck, you want to help me fix him?" Steve teased his best friend who shook himself and slumped down next to me and my other friends.

"I'm not broken numbskull, I'm fine. Anyone ever tell you that you sing like an angel doll?" I blushed even harder and was starting to play with my fingers nervously until I saw Shane pushing around the crowd of people. I knew that this wouldn't be good for anybody and especially not for Steve or I who had anxiety but Bucky just took my hand expecting the big blowup in my face.

"What was that?! Are you trying to make a foul out of yourself and all your little friends?!" He yelled at me and I only got out a stuttered response back at him trying as hard as I could to stand up for myself.

"S-Steve a-asked m-me s-so I-I didn't think t-that f-far ahead." I moved a lock of hair behind my ear but Bucky just wrapped an arm protectively around my shoulders.

"That's not a good enough reason for you to draw attention to yourself like that!! That language is disgusting, it's not even English!!" I could tell that Bucky was at his wits end but Cat was at hers first.

"You know what asshole?! I'm so fucking done with you assaulting my best friend!! I've sat by idly while she was suffering because I thought that it couldn't be that bad in reality but I was so wrong. You are the spawn of Satan and I should never have let you treat my best friend like shit. She's happy now it's time for you to grow a pair of fucking balls and get over yourself!! And it’s not just a language, it’s beautiful and it’s her thing that she can communicate with her father that’s there thing. That they can have a conversation in three and a half different languages." Sam had to hold his girlfriend back from punching Shane in the face again as I was trying to cower in the corner but he grabbed my arm that Bucky wasn't holding onto to keep me grounded. It was the metal arm so it didn't have a grip on me really.

"Let me go!!" I tried to kick him to get him off me at the very least but it was no use trying to kick the captain of the football team off of you. Believe me, I've tried to get him off of me before and it was to no success. He had me pinned up against the wall and I could see the wolflike smirk on his eyes face as well as the ravenous look his eyes when I glanced up. Before I knew what was happening he was forcefully kissing me shoving his tongue down my throat and I just felt numb. I felt nothing, absolutely nothing. Just like I'd always felt with him but I thought that was normal. That was before Bucky came into my life obliterating everything that I thought relationships were like. When he pulled back for air I felt his lips trail up my face to my ear.

"Did you really think that you could get rid of me that easily Vivienne? That by just simply finding a new boyfriend I would leave you alone? Well you thought wrong. And you know something else? Your boyfriend is cripple who is only using you for your body." His slimy voice coated over my sense before I pushed his back feeling this strength coming out of me as Bucky came around the corner rushing to my side.

"Newsflash Shane, I'm not dating anybody. And Bucky is a far better man than you ever were with me, he cares about me and wants to get to know me. And something else, I don't care about the fact that he doesn't have the use of his left arm right now. Me and my dad are going to fix that at the end of this month when I go back home." I reminded him and kneed him where the sun doesn't shine when the moment was right.

"That's the nice version of what Cat and Sam have planned for you so best be prepared and have your own army coming. Cause mine are armed and ready and loyal to my side of the argument." I reminded him as he kneeled on the floor in sheer pain and Bucky looked at me with sheer pride and slight lust at the powerful girl moment that I just had.

"You can't just leave me here in pain--" Shane protested and I knelt down on his level where he was still doubled over in pain.

"And how many times did you do that to me? Leave me broken and bruised and having to lie to my parents so that you wouldn't come back ten times harder? How many things have I given up for you? Dancing, speaking other languages around you, my virginity when will you ever just leave me alone? That's all I want, is to be happy and left alone to live my own life with the people that I love and care about. It's up to you whether you want to cause world war three between my friends and your friends or if you'll just leave us be together." I explained my terms to my ex-boyfriend before stomping over to where Cat was standing and she hugged me tightly.

"I'm so proud of you!! It's about time that asshole gets what he's had coming for him and if a knee to the balls was the nice thing to do in your terms than congratulations." Cat congratulated and I hugged Sam next who looked at me with both pride and sheer awe.

"Where the hell did that come from? Not gonna lie that was extremely awesome." I laughed at my best friend as my ex was still struggling to breathe properly and fell over.

"Pookie? Where are you?" God that ditsy girl was going to have the next piece of me if she wasn't careful. I was in a very sour mood and didn't want to deal with a literal ditsy blonde.

"Pookie!! Who did this to you?!" I knew that this was the moment of my life that I wanted to run and hide but I couldn't. I had to stand tall with the rest of my friends backing me up. Bucky still hadn't come to after I kneed Shane in the nuts so it would have to be three against one since as much as I love Steve he can't really hold his own.

"Vivienne... she's crazy!!" He protested and that was the moment when Bucky came back from wherever the hell he had just gone.

"OH, she's crazy?! After the shit that you just pulled with her calling her a loser and a person that nobody will ever want. Well I have news for you, somebody does want her and it's me. Cripple or not like she said that's going to change sooner rather than later. And her speaking Māori isn't weird or unnatural it's something that she clearly loves doing and it's a huge part of her personality. And if what I saw means anything, you kissed her forcefully first buddy so a knee to the balls is probably the best thing that could have happened to you." I saw the emotions flash across the girls face as she struck Shane across the face and kneed him again at the same time.

"Take that and the last three months of my life with you Shane Mendez." I could tell that the girl was crying but Shane just fell to the floor and I went up to the girl. I had a couple of Kleenex that I kept in my purse that was small enough so gym wouldn't tell me to take it off. I handed one to the girl and crouched down next to her.

"I'm sorry that our ex has to be such a jerk. Let's start over, I'm Vivienne Shore. It's nice to meet you." I introduced myself to the girl who smiled at me makeup running down her face and I handed her another one so that she wouldn't look like a mess.

"Maxinne Riche but my friends call me Maxie or Max. It's nice to meet you Vivienne." I shook the young woman's hand with a small smile as the rest of my friends came over to sit with me when I heard the gym whistle.

"I'll introduce you to everyone else when we head out to the track. It was nice meeting you Maxie." I stood up with the help of Bucky who offered me a hand up off the ground.

"I hope that you know what you're doing here." Bucky said nervous around the new girl around me.

"I do, I think she'll be fine. I can sense whether or not somebody is a good person, trust me it came in handy once things with Shane went south for the winter." I mentioned and saw Shane struggling and failing to get up and he called out to Maxie.

"Max, help me up, come on!!" Maxinne just kept on walking right past him and Cat looked tempted to offer him a hand up only to push him back down flat on his ass. Sam just shook his head at his girlfriend wordlessly telling her no that was a bad idea.

"I'm sorry that he was so incredibly asshole-ish with you Vivienne. We deserve better." I smiled at Maxie but just nodded my head at her.

"For the longest time, I thought that I didn't deserve better. That I was getting treated that way for something that I had done to make somebody angry like God even though I'm atheist and don't believe in that sort of thing. I'm starting to believe that I deserve better though." I looked over at Bucky who was stretching and laughing at something that Sam had said.

"He is very handsome, I can see why you'd be interested in him. It's the blue eyes isn't it? That was what convinced me to date Shane at first." I laughed at the girl who was so clearly more intelligent than I was thinking earlier on in the day.

"That was the initial thing that sucked me in to him. However, when I got to know him throughout the day I found that we have far more in common than I was expecting. By the way, you don't have to call me Vivienne all the time. I have multiple nicknames that Cat and Sam have given me. They are my two best friends and I love them more than anything. My main ones are Vivi and Vi though they keep growing the more friends I make." I told my new friend and heard didn't hear the teacher blow the whistle since I was talking to Maxie.

"Doll? It's time to go the track." I blushed at the nickname and Maxie got a good laugh out of my embarrassment.

"That's one of them too I take it, that's so freaking adorable!! Tell me honestly, what were your first impression of me?" I knew that question would come up sooner rather than later.

"That you were a complete ditsy blonde who wore too much makeup and would probably be the next cheerleading captain." I said softly so as to not offend the girl and she just rolled her eyes at me.

"I told him that's what people would think of me but did he listen to me? No, no is the answer to that question. I'm actually incredibly smart, but when he asked to see my transcripts from my old school I was confused. That's when he told me that he needed me to put on this show to try and win you back. I never even liked him and I'm sorry for any part of what I did." I stopped walking and Bucky turned around and looked back at me and instantly got concerned.

"Doll, what's wrong? What happened? Are you okay?" He started to rush back to me to make sure that I was okay but before I could answer him I felt a sensory overload come over my body and couldn't hear anything but the last thing that I stuttered out before I couldn't say anything else was

"Hug..." I said softly and he easily followed the instructions rubbing soft circles down my back as Cat came running towards me with Sam right behind her.

"What did you say to her?!" She hissed out at my new friend and I finally came back from where I was thinking.

"I-It w-wasn't h-her f-fault C-Cat." I argued though it was soft and I felt Bucky undo my ponytail with a soft remark by my ear.

"I have a younger sister, I can fix this later." He mentioned and I smacked my head slightly for not realizing that should have been my first question.

"She told me that she wasn't even dating Shane, that he was trying to put on a show to win me back and playing the part of the dumb blonde girlfriend to try to do it. That she never should have agreed to doing it." Maxie looked completely guilty as Cat sat down next to me as Bucky started to run his fingers through my long curly hair.

"You should keep wearing your hair long babydoll, it's really gorgeous." I smiled softly at Bucky's compliment as a new shade of light pink stained my cheeks.

"It always gets in my face though and pretty much rejects everything." I protested blindly knowing that I would at least try to wear it long when I was around him.

"What language was that song in? It was really cool!!" Maxie asked me easily changing the topics to something much easier than what we were talking about a moment ago.

"It's a language called Māori, it's the most spoken language in New Zealand. What I was singing was their version of Shiny from Moana since that was originally what inspired me to learn the language since I kind of have a Jemaine Clement problem and he went back to play him again." I saw Maxie's eyes go as big as saucers and she looked at me with a slight sparkle in her eyes.

"Was it hard to learn? I'd love to learn it, I can already speak German, French and a good percentage of Italian." I smiled at my new friend and I found myself able to stand now even though Bucky was still holding me.

"Bucky, can you let me go sometime today please?" I asked him trying to do puppy dog eyes that usually worked on my dad but wasn't working on him.

"Fine, get up doll, but word for the wise, living with Stevie has made me immune to puppy dog eyes." He mentioned to me as he fixed my hair in the ponytail again.

"I can't believe that Shane would go that fucking far to get you back..." Cat rubbed her temples and her boyfriend nudged her shoulder with a small smile.

"Try not to worry about it too hard baby, there's not much you can do for him at this point. Just don't kill him in his sleep, I don't want to visit my love in prison." I laughed at my best friend and waited for Maxie to catch up with me before she asked me a question in french.

 _"Êtes-vous et lui datant?"_ At first I was slightly confused but then I realized that she was talking about me and Bucky.

 _"Nous travaillons notre chemin jusqu'à á cette."_  I told my new friend and she looked at me with a slight betrayal evident in her eyes.

 _"Vous deux avez tellement de chimie cependant!! Pourquoi ne pas faire quelque chose avec ça?"_  I was kind of wondering the same thing. Why was I waiting when it seemed like I could just go running into his arms and stay there for the rest of my life?

 _"Il veut me connaître en primer. Confiance en moi si je pouvais je baiserait lui dès maintenant."_ I admitted to my new friend and she looked at me with this sheer sense of awe and and amazement.

"That's incredible!! I'm so jealous that you have someone willing to take that amount of time with you. Don't you just kind of want to grab him into a kiss even more though?" I laughed at my outstanding new friend and smiled at her.

"Of course I do!! I've been wanting to do that since I met him this morning. I want to meet his grandfather though before I move any further with him. That's why he calls me doll, his grandfather's nickname for his grandmother was doll." She got all starry eyed and I laughed at her when I saw Bucky turn his head around and I knew that we were busted.

"I think he caught onto the fact that we were talking about Vivi, you might want to run." Maxie started to run and I chased after her.

"You're the one that asked about him first so I blame you!!" I yelled back at her catching up to my friends as they all laughed at me.

"And for the record, learning Māori is one of the easiest things in the world if you can roll your r's since there's a lot of that. If you can't do that you can still learn it, it's just harder." I advised my friend and she nodded her head at me as Bucky put an arm around my shoulder.

"If you were to ever met Jemaine would you speak in Māori with him?" I nodded my head at my friend knowing that I would be able to and he would probably be really surprised since I'm not from New Zealand.

"I definitely would just to see the expression on his face. He's up there with the people that I would literally love to meet in real life. He's actually above Demetri for that exact reason because I could speak that language with him and tell him how much he changed my life. I used to watch Flight Of The Conchords while playing cards with my stepdad and my mom when I was old enough. That was about three years ago and we had a ton of fun just laughing at the ridiculousness of that show." I explained to my friends as Steve looked over at me.

"You love Demetri Martin too? He was all Buck would talk about when he was in the hospital. Lots of listening to his standup and watching him on tv when he got home. We also watch We Bare Bears because of him too." I smiled at my friend as I nodded my head at the question.

"My mom and I would get into fights all the time when she first got together with Richard since I thought that he was replacing my dad. I was being an over dramatic child who missed her dad that was halfway across the planet. My mom would watch Demetri Martin after almost every fight since she would of course feel awful for having to yell at her daughter. I would hear his standup and creep into the room and apologize to her and explain my actions to her and she would hug me while we popped popcorn and watched Demetri Martin. He's probably one of the reasons why I still have that connection with my mom and we also watch We Bare Bears whenever I see a new episode on cartoon network. My favorite is obviously Ice Bear. There are some days when I'll just talk in the third person like him with my my mom and Richard." I told my friends blushing slightly when my friends all laughed good-naturedly at me.

"It's true, she does. It's also extremely adorable and she's going to demonstrate it now." I laughed at Cat as I got into his headspace since it was a  very easy headspace to fall into.

"Ice bear is happy. Ice bear has many friends. Ice bear is thankful for all of you." I did it deadpanned very much like the infamous character from the children's cartoon that adults could also watch and fall in love with.

"Okay, that is extremely precious. You're going to have to do that when you meet my mom. She's going to love you I just know it, I can ask her to invite you over tomorrow so that you can meet my grandpa as well." I smiled at Bucky and the rest of my friends who were all in sheer awe at the adorableness of my Ice bear impression.

"I think I just died of cuteness overload. They'll put it on my grave, death by Ice Bear impression." I laughed heartily at Maxie's thoughts and Steve nodded his head at me.

"He's my favorite character too, sometimes I find him to be the most relatable. He's not the easiest at people interaction unless you count his brothers, Yuri or the seal that he made friends with." Bucky stopped walking and glared at his best friend for bringing up both of those characters.

"We established this Stevie, don't talk about Yuri unless you want me to cry. Either one of the Yuri's we don't talk about." Either one of the Yuri's? I only knew of one other Yuri and he's watched anime before but Cat was too far ahead of me.

"Have you seen Yuri On Ice?! That's my favorite show!! I love it so much, it's one of Vivi's favorites as well." Cat was super enthusiastic about that show since it had taught her a lot about what it was like to have my anxiety.

"I have seen Yuri On Ice, it was a really great show and really depicted anxiety as a real thing. I take it that he was your favorite?" I shook my head at the question with a small embarrassed smile.

"My favorite was Yurio, I hope that they expand on his backstory for season two if that ever comes out. He's one of those characters where I just felt this instant connection with. Towards the end of the anime I was rooting just as much for him as Yuuri even though I have a lot more in common with Yuuri I still favored Yurio for some reason." Maxie nodded her head at the rest of us and moved her blonde bangs out of her face.

"He was my favorite too, I partially started to style my hair after him when I finished watching the show since we had the same color hair and eyes. My aunt still says that I'm going through a rebellious phase. She took me in after my mom didn't want me anymore so that's why I relate so much to Yurio that and I can ice skate." I gave my new friend a high five since that was something that we had in common.

"Up top!! I can skate as well but I just haven't done it in a long time. It was something that I used to do with my cousin who still lives in Southampton, I'll have to call her later and tell her that I'm visiting home. She'll most likely want to see me during that visit." I saw Bucky's eyes look over at me and I looked back at my new friend.

"What kinds of jumps can you land?" Bucky asked me and I started to list off the jumps that my cousin had taught me.

"Well the last jump that I remember landing was when I tried again last year and I landed Victor's speciality the quadruple flip when I had an empty rink since my mom had called in to allow me to blow off some steam. Last year I kind of let myself go since I mentioned to you earlier that I have an issue with stress eating but I also have thyroid disease which definitely puts a damper on things. As soon as I lost all that weight again my mom surprised me with renting out the local ice rink for the afternoon so that I could skate again. The other jumps that I have done in my spare time are the toe-loop as well as a salchow perfectly since that's my cousins work and her parents own the ice rink near our house, I can do a flip and a lutz and finally this one is my worst one it's called an axel but I've recently gotten better the last time I went during last winter break." I started to go through the entire list pulling up my phone so that they could see all the crazy jumps that I could do and that I loved especially the quadruple flip. That one was my favorite since I could pretend to be Victor whenever I did that jump.

"Wow!! You're really really good, I'm just an amateur at it growing up where I did in Texas we didn't have a really close ice rink so I didn't get a ton of practice in. Are you sure that this isn't what you want to do with your life?" I nodded my head at my new friends question as Bucky still watched through all my videos enraptured by them.

"I'm positive, I mean I'm talented but honey with my social anxiety and all those interviews plus being always in the press, I don't think that I would handle that well." I moved a curl back into my ponytail as Cat put an arm around my shoulders.

"I think that what Max means is that you have far too much talent to not at least be teaching. Maybe when you're in Southampton ask your uncle for a job teaching young skaters, you do love kids." Cat reminded me and I nodded my head at the question knowing that would be a lot of fun, especially if I got accepted into Southampton university.

"I want to see these jumps in person when we go as well. They look absolutely beautiful on camera but I almost can't believe that's you skating doll. You look so free like you're truly happy on that ice." I blushed taking my phone back from my friend as my dad texted me.

_Dad: How's your day going little love? I just finished that project that I was telling you about this morning. Most of it was done last night and now I have nothing to do. Have you made any new friends in need of prosthetics? ;P_

"Oh he has no idea..." I muttered to myself as Sam looked over my shoulder seeing my father's text to me.

_Me: I actually have made a new friend who will be coming with me to Southampton for my birthday. I’ll talk more about him with you later though dad._

"Are you going to tell him about Bucky now? I'd figure that you would tell him about him tonight." I looked over at my friend as the teacher blew the whistle.

"You have five minutes!! If anyone wants a race, get it out of your systems now." I looked over at my best friend with a quirked up eyebrow.

"Race between the female track captain and the male track captain loser buys the other one lunch?" Sam offered me and I nodded my head starting to get slightly peckish.

"I'm not that hungry but by the end of fifth period when our lunch is I definitely will be. You're on." I shook my best friends hand on it.

"Heaton, we want to race each other."  Mrs. Heaton nodded her head at us and I smiled over at her.

"Clear the track!! We have two people who wish to race." Everyone got out of the way as me and Sam got to the starting lines ready to race like no tomorrow.

"Alright you two know the drill from your racing's before this but just so everyone is clear: the first person to grab that flag at the end of the race is the winner. You have no time limit and it's first come first serve, winner in this case gets the loser to buy them lunch." Mrs. Heating made sure that everyone understood how things were done around here and I got in my starting position hearing the whistle of my gym teacher and I was off like a shot. Sam was fast but he was nowhere near as fast as I was when I really wanted to run and today I just felt like running. I saw Bucky looking at me with sheer awe and that only made me run faster to try and impress my new friend oddly enough. I ended up grabbing the flag nearly three seconds before Sam did but Heating blew her whistle stopping Sam before he took his own flag.

"We have a winner, Miss Vivienne Shore the team captain for the varsity track team has beaten Mr. Sam Wilson the team captain for the varsity men's track team." Mrs. Heating assured us and I nodded my head taking my water bottle that Bucky had been holding and took a long swig from it nearly parched after that run.

"What is your dream song to skate to? If you could do it professionally that is." I looked down at my sneakers for just a moment before my eyes lit up with the perfect idea.

"Inuyasha's Lullaby from Inuyasha would be my goto and I would love to someday skate to that song. That would be my program skate and I would love to skate to that song. It just holds so many memories for me and my family that I would just do it because I loved that song so much." I mentioned as Sam came over to Cat huffing for breath and I smiled at her.

"That would be breathtaking to see doll, I still say that you should at least give it a shot if you love it so much. But I can't run your life so you get to make your own decisions." I smiled at my friend as I leaned my head on his shoulder hearing the whistle to get up again for advanced Language Arts this time around.

"Where are you heading Maxie?" I asked my new friend who had to think for a moment.

"I'm going to AP lit I think, but don't quote me on that I'll have to check again when I get back inside the locker room." Cat helped my new friend up off the grass while I went to go and help Steve with Bucky.

"Are you alright Stevie? You've hardly said anything." Bucky asked his best friend clearly concerned for him but Steve just nodded his head at him.

"It's a lot to take in you know? You're really liking Vivi and I don't blame you but I don't think I'm ready to lose my best friend." Steve looked down at his shoes but I decided to take this moment to make my presence known for the younger boy.

"I'll never take Bucky away from you Steve, that will never happen. You won't lose him, I can assure you of that. One of the conditions that I had with Shane was that I had to spend more time with him and his friends than I did with Sam and Cat. Of course they found out and they diminished that condition faster than you could say what happened." My new friends both laughed at me as Steve linked one arm through mine.

"Thank you for telling me that, I think I really needed to hear that. Buck has been there for me since preschool and took me in when I had nowhere else to go welcoming me into his family. You're really something Vivienne Shire." Bucky smiled at me interacting with his best friend as he put an arm around my shoulders.

"That's something that I could have told you Stevie. I could just tell that she was something different about her the moment that I rushed in to stand up for her." I blushed at the compliment and Maxie saw me flustered to hell and back.

"Careful with the charm there Bucky, you might just combust your girlfriend." I wanted to yell at her that we weren't dating but knew that she wouldn't even listen to me so I just decided to ignore her as we all went back into the gym.

"I'm really happy for you Vi, I don't think that I've ever seen you smile so much in the last year. It's a good look on you though." Cat mentioned to me as I changed out of my H.E.A.T tank top and put it into my locker.

"Bucky makes me happy as crazy as that sounds, I have no idea why he makes me so happy since I hardly know him at all but I really want to. I'm going to tell my parents tonight, what Shane did to me. I've kept it a secret from them for far too long and they have every right to know." I pulled back on my regular outfit lacing up my sneakers hearing the bell ring and walking out and up to language arts without my crew knowing that they would catch up to me but I loved this class. I had it last year and the teacher was absolutely outstanding, her name is was Mrs. Shoeman.

"Afternoon Vivienne, how was your summer?" She asked me and I nodded my head in agreement with her.

"My summer was fine thank you for asking, how was yours Shoe?" I asked the teacher picking out a table in the far corner hearing Maxie's laugh at something that Sam had said coming from down the hallway.

"It was rather nice, today's a five page short story about you and a character from fiction that you really admire. I want it to be just like this dream conversation if you could talk to anyone in the entire world of fiction who would it be." I nodded my head getting out my notebook already knowing who my character would be.

"That sounds awesome, I already have an idea for mine." I started to draw the front cover for the story so that I could staple them together. My friends all found me at the table and sat down with me as I smiled over at Bucky.

"What are you drawing? More characters? Is that Yurio?" I nodded my head to all the question pushing a lock of hair behind my ear as Cat explained to my friend how I drew since I was busy.

"When Vivi really gets to drawing it's hard to get her to pay attention to anything else. She gets in her own little zone and I've learned to just talk to other people since it could distract her and she gets really frustrated when she gets distracted by something." Cat explained and I smiled at my new friend as Maxie sat next to me on the other side looking over my shoulder.

"Yep, she's drawing Yurio but he's smiling at a girl on the rink is that you?" I nodded my head at the question focusing again on me on the ice but now designing the outfit that I wanted to work with. This character would be basically me except she would be from New Zealand and speak Māori fluently just like me but for a much better reason. My tongue started to stick out as I started to draw the skates on my character as it so often did when I was just focusing on drawing something but I heard the snap of a camera and then a very casual Bucky trying to look way more casual and I rolled my eyes at him not in the mood to fight back until I was finished and then I would make him delete that photo.

"Is she going to be from New Zealand?" Sam asked me and I nodded my head again putting the finishing touches on the skates and blowing to get rid of the eraser dust when the bell rang for the start of class.

"Good afternoon my heavily advanced writers and readers!! My name is Mrs. Shoeman and it's great to see some new faces as well as old in my classroom. I always start today with a fun little project for me to get to know you and the way that you write. I'm giving you this hour and a half class period to write about yourself interacting with a character from fiction that you have a respect for. It can be anything movies, television, books and even comics just as long as you give an accurate description of both yourself and the interactions between everybody else. Good luck." Mrs. Shoeman went back to her seat and I instantly started to write about the character that I loved the most above all else, Yuri from Russia.

_The sheer of the skates created ice particles as I ran through my routine that I had done the year before just for fun as the lyrics to mihi ma ra ran through my blood with a smirk. There was a reason why I considered that my favorite one so far from my home country, because it personified Māui's personality far more than the English version ever did. I saw my best friend still stretching over on the ledge with a huff still hating practice more than anything else since he still had so many limitations. If Yuri Plisetsky hated anything other than being ordered around it was the fact that he still had far more limits than I did. I felt the wind coming from my skates through my black hair that was in two ponytails tied back with purple ribbons as I skated so that it wouldn't get in my face. I heard the door open and close again seeing Victor and his fiancée coming through the door, Yuuri Katsuki. This would be my first time meeting him in person and not just seeing him on Victor's social media since I had been busy the last year back at home and couldn't compete._

_"Vivi!! You're back from New Zealand?" I waved to Victor as Yuri answered the question with an annoyed huff._

_"No you're seeing thing again old man." Yuri mentioned and I could tell that as usual his insult lacked the heat when he was really angry with people. When he was really angry his eyes showed this obscene almost hatred for the person but with Victor it was just annoyance._

_"Yuri, be nice to him. He's done a lot for you to be acting like a child. Hi, I'm Vivienne Shire, New Zealand native and Yuri's best friend." I introduced myself to Yuuri and he smiled at though I could tell that it was slightly hesitant._

_"My best friend back in college was a big fan of yours since he's from Thailand and they don't have a lot of professional skaters much like New Zealand. He loved your skating style and the way that you could blend the lyrics from your home country." I smiled brightly because I had loved meeting fans from all of the world all telling me the same thing and that's why I skated to prove that it could be done no matter your emotional disability or social oddities you could still skate and have a great time doing it._

_"I'm truly honored that your friend thinks that. That's the reason why I skate, to prove that it can be done no matter your homeland or emotional stability with my Asperger's. I love bringing the Māori language to the people through songs that they all know from movies that are already popular around the world. I've been on a bit of a Mōana kick the last two years since they have dubbed all the songs into my own language that meant a lot to me since we're not the most vocal country in the entire world." I explained the workings of my skating as Yuri smiled softly at me knowing that skating meant the world to me._

_"Your entire country is proud of you Vi, you're doing amazing things with your passion. And she's already working on this years songs too right?" I nodded my head at my best friend's questions starting to come off the ice for a moment’s break._

_"I have actually, I'm really looking forward to this years skating since I couldn't skate last year I'm bring my A-game with me. I'm doing Piata mai nei which is the Māori version of Shiny in English. I've been dying to work with that song ever since I heard the original soundtrack. I couldn't really connect with any other song until it came out in my language but I loved Shiny because it's actor, Jemaine Clement is from New Zealand and did the movie again for his home country." I explained to my two closest friends as Yuri came over to sit by me._

_“I remember you talking about him now, he did a television show didn't he?" Yuri asked me and I nodded my head with a bright laugh at the mention of one of my favorite comedy shows that I watched with my mom._

_"Yes he was, it was a musical comedy show that I watched with my mom back home a few years ago called Flight Of The Conchords. Their music was some of the funniest stuff on the planet to me and my family. It's really weird but hey I'm an aspie what are you going to do?" I shrugged my shoulders seeing Yakov coming out of his office._

_"Is your skate ready Vivienne?" He asked me and I nodded head adjusting my jacket that I was wearing showing my country's flag._

_"Of course I'm ready Yakov!! I've been practicing since last year when I wasn't able to skate professionally once I got better." I laced up my skates making sure that they were double knotted._

_"So what are we going to see?" Victor asked me and I got my music ready on my phone and plugged it into the amp._

_"As I already told you my free skate is going to be Piata Mei Nei which is Shiny from Moana but in my language Māori." I explained to them and I started by facing the back wall. When I heard the music drop I did a turn and started the step sequence that would translate how my character was feeling very preening but at the same time he knew he was the boss in that situation. I did my first jump at the first piata mei nei and landed it with great flourish as I watched Yuuri who was tapping this probably for his friend. I had this obsession with being perfect that I couldn't ever perform anything for anybody if I didn't have it choreographed down to a science. Yuri was practically my worst critic and I smiled at my two best friends in the entire world as they sat on the edge of their seats as I jumped perfectly at the end of the song landing the quadruple flip with practiced ease._

_"That was outstanding!! Phichit is going to freak when he sees this." He sent the video to his best friend but that name stuck out to me as very familiar. Had to put name with face in the back of my mind and suddenly this all made sense. I had met him before at the competition before the last and he asked me for my autograph._

_"I've actually already met him a while ago, like two years ago when I did my last competition he asked for my autograph. As Yuri will tell you, I take forever signing because I like to have an intimate conversation with the person whereas he just signs and walks." I told Yuuri before my next song had started and I got repositioned and started the acoustical song that had spoken to me just as much since my mom had written it for me to work with for my program skate using the piano and instruments that were local to my country._

_"Who's playing the piano during this song?" Yuuri asked me and I smiled over at him as the song started to pick up speed._

_"My mom, she's a part of the symphony that travels all over New Zealand and Australia so she wanted to work with a song for me as a surprise. This is what she wrote." I explained while doing a triple toe loop my mom's favorite jump and landing it with ease as the song had finished and I bowed for the rest of my friends._

_“Why weren't you in the tournaments at all last year?" Yuuri asked me and I pushed a piece of hair behind my ear and shyly started to twiddle my fingers._

_"She caught phenomena and wanted to spend the year getting better. She tends to get sick really easily so I told her that she should just go home since she couldn't practice in her condition." Yuri told the young man who looked at me with sympathy written in his kind brown eyes._

_"I'm truly sorry that you had to get sick during the competition season. I remember seeing your skate to You're Welcome in your language it was one of the most amazing things how you could tap on ice and make it look so effortless." I smiled at my new friend with a light laugh as Yuri started to laugh as well since we both knew the translation of the song in English._

_"That song is actually not translated to you're welcome. In Māori we don't have a specific word for such a thing, so mihi mai ra actually means directly translated Congratulate me." I explained the meaning of the word as Victor looked back at me then realization dawned on his face._

_"That's right!! I forgot that you taught me that when I thought the same thing." I started to laugh when Yuri muttered under his breath just loud enough for me to hear._

_"He'd forget where his head is if it wasn't attached to his neck." Victor playfully shoved my best friend off the bench and I helped him back up to where he was sitting as he put a comforting arm around my shoulders._

_"Very nice work Vivienne, already perfected than again I'm not surprised. Just don't let it get rusty." My coach advised me going back into his office and leaving us all to our own devices._

_"She won't, she never does. She's a perfectionist. Unless it's perfect nobody sees it unless it's me." I laughed at Yuri blushing under the private information that had been out in the open now._

_"That actually makes a lot of sense. How long did it take you to learn how to tap on skates?" I laughed at the memory having the first time that I had ever tried it on my phone._

_"It took me around three months to not just fall flat on my face. It was one of the happiest moments of my life when I finally was able to just tap and bring that song to life. It was only for about thirty seconds but still that was one of the most complicated and tense moments of tournaments for me. Just wondering how many people would be let down if I couldn't do this after telling them that I would be able to." I explained to Yuuri and Victor nodded his head._

_"Now this I do remember, you asked me how I got so good with handling you anxiety lubov? It was from watching Yurio with Vivienne. They really are the polar opposites of each other but somehow they are still best friends." Victor mentioned to his fiancée as I went back on the ice to start my rehearsing all over again._

I put my pencil down and looked back up at the clock seeing that we had fifteen minutes left and I pulled out my sketchbook to start a brand new drawing. My dad had gotten me to finally start watching one of his favorite shows to watch when he had insomnia in the middle of the night Supernatural. I wanted to draw Dean driving his Impala down the road jamming to one of my favorite "hair bands" Van Halen. For some reason his character just spoke to me and I easily understood all of the emotions and the choices that he made. I felt a gentle nudge to my arm as I was sketching and I looked up to see Bucky smiling at me.

"Your tongue was sticking out again dollface, and the bell kind of rang five minutes ago." I blushed feverishly as I closed my sketchbook now thoroughly humiliated for getting distracted by something so simple.

"By the way, about the tongue thing. Delete that photo that you took of me please, it's embarrassing." I argued with my friend who linked his good arm through mine shaking his head at me.

"Not on your life babydoll, as a matter of fact that picture is going to be my new lockscreen." I glared over at my new friend because that was so uncool of him.

"You better not, if you do I will have your head." I threatened and he just laughed at me as he rested his chin on the top of my head and I blushed lightly.

"I don't think that you could ever actually meant that doll. You're too into me to try doing that for no particular reason. Besides it's an adorable photo of you and you weren't even paying attention. Do you have a hard time smiling for photos?" I nodded my head faintly blushing with a slight pink on my cheeks as he held the door open to the lunchroom where Sam already had my favorite lunch waiting.

"It is actually very hard for me to smile naturally in photos usually someone has to make me laugh or it won't look normal. It depends on the situation though, most of my picture's that I had taken during my sweet sixteen at Disneyland are genuine because I was so happy that day. That's the lockscreen on my phone, it's a picture of me with Belle who is my favorite Disney Princess ever since I was extremely little." I explained to my new friend as we walked to the table with all my other friends.

"I saw that earlier and wanted to ask about your favorite Disney princess. It makes sense that your favorite would be Belle though at least to me anyways." Bucky thought and Sam handed me my lunch that he had bought for me while putting an arm around my shoulders.

"I'm proud of you, I think that you're making a good choice, trusting Bucky. He's a good guy." My best friend told me soft enough that Bucky couldn't hear him since he was wrapped up in a conversation with his own best friend.

"Me too, I think I'm already fully trusting him. That sounds completely crazy but I don't know how to stop it from happening." I whispered back to my best friend as he drew small circles into my hand to keep me grounded in reality.

"You don't need to stop it from happening, just embrace it and everything will come to you so much easier." Sam reminded me and I took a bite out of my salad smiling at my best friends.

"I really should just embrace it, I mean I'm meeting his family or what's left of it tomorrow. He's probably going to meet my dad before he leaves with me to go back home just so my dad makes sure that he checks out. And my mom and Richard will definitely want to meet him before my dad even." I whispered back to my best friends and Maxie turned to me from where she was sitting next to Steve.

"Can I see more of your drawings?" I nodded my head getting out my sketchbook so that my new friend could see them.

"These are limited because I had way more in my old sketchbook that Shane ruined but here you go." I handed it to her getting a whole new idea for a drawing maybe when I got home I would draw a tattoo for myself a Gray Fullbuster symbol, his ice fairy.

"What is your all time favorite anime?" Bucky asked me seemingly reading my mind as I smiled brightly knowing the answer to this question would probably get some funny looks from him.

"My favorite anime is Fairy Tail by a landslide. I love it's characters, story arcs, and the varying amounts of emotional moments that all the characters have to overcome to become stronger through the power of teamwork. My favorite character is Gray by so much that it's a little ridiculous and my dad loves to tease and make fun of me for how much I look up to him as a character. I also really love Levi and Leo but Gray will always be at the top of the heap because of all the pain that he has seen." I explained my reasoning for why the guild's stripper was easily my favorite character and Bucky looked at me with a small smile at my personal story that I had shared with him.

“That makes a lot of sense, mine is still Space Dandy but that’s just a personal thing. What about your dad? Did he get you into anime?” I made a fifty fifty motion with my hands as I smiled at my friend.   
“Kind of, if you count Miyazaki movies as anime. My first true anime experience with my dad was One Piece and that spawned one of my all time favorite shows. I love Sanji and Brook especially though all of those characters taught me things that meant a lot to me. Luffy taught me about the power of never giving up until you eventually win the battle, Zoro about not taking things so seriously, Ossop about standing up for what you believe in and you get my point right?” I asked my friend as I explained all the characters that I had grown up loving and how they all had a special place in my heart.

“I totally get your point, that was one of my first animes too during that rebellious phase that I mentioned. Alright, favorite Disney Pixar character?” Bucky asked me and I had to really think about this one since I had two.

“Can I have two? One from my childhood and one from now that I’m older?” I responded and he nodded his head happily at me.

“My favorite from when I was younger was easily Remy from Ratatouille since that was my first Pixar movie that I ever saw in movie theaters. He spoke to me since I was always different from most of my peers being smarter and far more intelligent than they were since my dad homeschooled me.  Remy gave me that relatability similar to my relationship with Donatello the Ninja Turtle since I loved cooking and baking with my mom. My favorite one that I’m older now is Hector from Coco. I loved him so much, his sense of humor, his emotional side, his protectiveness over Miguel, how much he loved his daughter, his songs and his singing voice, the way that he looks at Imelda just everything. My mom’s family is Spanish so that movie just spoke to my relationship that I have with my grandparents since they still speak it fluently with me so that it stays in the family. It was the very first language that I had ever learned fully so it changed that part of my life.” I explained taking out my phone so that I could check up on my Youtube channel and see how people were liking the cover that I had put up yesterday. I gasped and showed my phone to my best friend.

“I’m over one million subs!!” I checked my email seeing the congratulations from Youtube as well so I knew that it was true.

“That’s awesome!! Your parents will be super proud of you Vivi, that’s incredible. Aren’t you glad that didn’t listen to Shane’s advice and that you kept it activated behind his back?” I nodded my head with a bright smile at Sam’s thoughts before Bucky looked at me curiously.

“You have a Youtube channel? What’s the handle maybe I know of it?” Bucky asked me and I smiled to myself.

“Disneybroadwaynerd that’s my channel name, I do some anime titles as well though. Like I did an English cover of Hacking To The Gate a few weeks ago and that was a ton of fun. I really loved Steins Gate and that’s one of the few where my dad was the one who encouraged me to watch it. He loved Makise Kurisu and that’s one of the characters that really changed my own life. Last year Shane had tried to get me to terminate my account, he didn’t like sharing me with the world. He made the biggest mistake though, I just blocked his channel from my feed so that he couldn’t see my videos and lied and told him that I quit doing it.” I mentioned and Steve turned to me surprised at the fact that I had just shared that information that I had told them.

“That’s so awesome!! I love your covers especially of Hope from One Piece and What I was born to do that one was really cool.” Steve congratulated and Cat got on her phone to send me a message through her Youtube channel.

“Hope is one of my favorite songs that I had grown up with. It’s just that part of One Piece that I just love more than anything since it focuses on Sanji who as I mentioned was one of my favorites in the entire show. I’ve always wanted to kind of make a nostalgic album but I’m a little young for that even if I really want to. It’s a life goal though to be able to make an album.” Sam put his arm around my shoulders and I grinned happily at him.

“Wait, did you do that cover of Smile Bomb from Yu Yu Hakusho?” I nodded my head at him enthusiastically because that was one of my happiest moments with my channel last year.

“That was me yes, I usually animate for my own videos since I’m not that comfortable with showing my face on the screen. I might do one though for one million, I’m still thinking about either doing that or putting together a nostalgic album of all the songs that I grew up with.” I told my two friends and wondered how on earth I was going to do all these things.

“What would be on that album?” Maxie asked me and I thought about it for a moment before thinking of at least a couple.

“Probably We Are from One Piece, Sakura Kiss from Ouran HighSchool Host Club since I do really love that show, Hope from One Piece, Shine from Hellsing, I’ve got a lot of choices from animes that I’ve grown up watching and watch to this day. I would do two separate albums, one for anime and one for just covers of everything else. They would be really long albums since I love way too many songs but I think that would be my dream occupation for at least the end of the year.” I heard the bell ring for the end of lunch as I stood up depositing my tray in the trash as I grabbed my Fairy Tail backpack. I had an advanced math class without my two best friends so I just walked to the upstairs and went to sit near the back of the class not willing to talk to anybody until I saw Shane come into the room and I just prayed that if I kept checking my twitter congratulations for the one million subs that he would eventually go and sit somewhere else and thankfully he didn’t sit down next to me so I took a deep sigh of relief at the thought that I was sitting alone for once without him pestering me. Math class started and ended thankfully as I got a text from Cat.

_Cat: I’m going out for ice cream with Bucky, Sam, Steve and Maxie are you in or out?_

_Me: I think I’ll go home, maybe tomorrow. I want to call my dad when I get home. Thanks for the offer though._ I put my phone back into my bag and was out the school doors without an incident strangely enough and started on my way home while humming to myself New World from One Piece. I did love that show probably way more than I should but I couldn’t help it, I was an easy girl but there was just something about the way that the story was told. It was about adventure, friendship, teamwork, companionship, and discovering new things about those around you. I opened the door to my town house using my key and took off my high top sneakers.

“Richard? I’m home from school!!” I called into the house seeing his office door closed actually and knew that he was on a meeting so I just went up to my room and grabbed my laptop so that I could skype my dad who was probably working in his workshop right about now so that was the first place that I tried. Luckily a moment later I saw a pair of honey colored brown eyes and a bright smile that lit up my dad’s entire face.

 _“Little love!!”_ He greeted and I smiled at my dad and his over kind hearted nature, he reminded me a lot like Natsu if he didn’t have fire powers. Including the motion sickness problem but he was fine if he was driving.

“Hi dad, how was your day? What’s this new project that you’ve been working on?” I asked him and I crossed my legs settling my laptop in between them.

 _“Do you remember Claire? She was the nextdoor neighbor used to offer you tea and cookies sometimes after our lessons together?”_ My dad asked me and I wracked my brain until a young woman stuck with me.

“Yes as a matter of fact I do remember her. Why did something happen to her?” I asked my dad worried about what could have possibly happened to the lovely woman who lived next door.

 _“Oh no, she’s fine princess, it’s her husband that she recently got his name is Edmond and he has a prosthetic that doesn’t really work that well with what he does. He’s a mechanic so having an arm that basically just lies there does nothing is not exactly the best thing that you could really ask for. I’m working on a way to try and fix that for him. What about you? You said that you met a boy? What’s he like?”_  My dad was suddenly bombarding me with all these various questions about what Bucky was like and I blushed lightly.

“I did met a boy dad, technically it was before I got to school even. He saved me from Shane’s insults and he’s just amazing. He’s really sweet and I think he really cares about me despite only knowing me an entire day. His name is James but he prefers the nickname that his grandfather gave him as a child Bucky and that’s what everyone calls him now. He has a prosthetic that is basically useless but I plan on getting his measurements or maybe he’ll sit through one of our conversations so that you can met him before we go to Southampton, speaking of which thank you so much for the tickets dad!! I really can’t wait until I see home again and it means a lot to me that you thought of that for my birthday present.” I thanked my dad while explaining to him the personality of the boy that I had met earlier that day.

 _“He sounds amazing angel, I can’t wait until I hear from him for the first time. I’m so happy that when you talk about him your little eyes light up and I can see just how happy he makes you. He sounds like your perfect match and that makes me even more excited that he treats you better than that utter arsehole of an ex-boyfriend.”_ I sighed deeply knowing that this conversation should probably happen now.

“About that dad…” I tried to think of the proper wording but it was like my brain just couldn’t connect with my mouth at all to put in the proper input so that this could maybe work.

 _“What did he do to you princess? Is he still after you? Do you need to talk about it with me?”_ I took a deep breath to try to quell my anxiety. He was my dad, he loved me and he would never hate me so I needed to have this conversation.

“He is still bothering me and making snide comments about me and Bucky but honestly that’s not my issue right now with him. Just to be perfectly honest with you, mom and Richard don’t know about this yet. I can’t tell them about this yet, it’s too painful. When me and Shane first started dating, we had a pact, that we would wait until if we ever got married to have sex. I knew that I would never marry him if I had been given the choice in the matter. It wasn’t even an issue, until last year that was the one promise that he kept for my sake even if the verbal abuse reached the all time high. It wasn’t until a week before my birthday, mom and Richard were out for the night when I heard this knock on my window. It was Shane but I could tell instantly there was something that was totally wrong with him, more than normal. I don’t know if he was high or drunk or what but I instantly tried to get him to leave since he was giving me this horrible feeling in the pit of my gut. He pounced on me and took my virginity, he raped me and I hated it. It wasn’t the first time either, he did it nine other times before I finally lost my cool and he broke up with me before I could break up with him.” I finally got all of this off my chest and I looked up at my dad who was crying and looked to be the most emotionally distraught that I had ever seen him.

 _“How dare he?! That is so wrong on so many levels it’s not even funny!! Why didn’t you tell me right after this happened princess? Why am I only hearing about this close to year after all this happened?”_ I could tell that my dad was hurting somewhere and I just wanted him to protect me for the rest of my life.

“I was worried that you would hate me or something like that and that’s why I never told you what was going on with my life. I was afraid to face the truth and the reality of the situation. I thought that if nobody but Cat knew that I would just wake up one morning and I would be a pure virgin again or something stupid like that.” I told my dad and I could sense that he wasn’t truly angry with me more hurt that I didn’t tell him this information back when it was important.

 _“Princess… I know that I’m far away and that I can’t always be there for you especially in times like this when I wish that I was different that I was a better husband to Rose and sometimes even a better father to you. This is unacceptable though that you would keep this a secret from your mother and Richard. Please tell me that at least the fucking wanker used protection or I swear to Christ that I will get on a plane right now just to kick this punk in the face, don’t think that I won’t.”_ My dad assured me and I started to laugh at my dad’s threat with a small smile for a moment until I started talking again.

“Oh, he used protection alright, said I wasn’t worth the price of getting knocked up. I don’t know about half of the cheerleader squad that he cheated on me with but I just have this feeling that he didn’t use it with them.” I heard my dad let out a groan of sheer distaste and I knew that I was still in trouble with him.

 _“I’m not mad at you princess, I’d never be mad at you not ever little love. I love you more than anything and you’re the best thing that I ever created. Even if I save lives everyday and make them better you’ve saved my own life with your shy smile and your little laugh at the silly things that I do or say to you. I just feel so awful that I couldn’t protect you and keep you safe from him. I only wanted for you to never hurt, when your mother told me that she was pregnant I promised myself that if it was a little girl that I would always protect her and be her white knight in shining armor. That’s what my little sister was treated like before she decided to get married and did the same thing for her own children. I knew the first moment I looked into your blue eyes when you had came out of your mom’s belly that I would keep you safe from harm. That’s all I ever wanted for you was to be happy and continue to be safe no matter what. It’s why I was so scared when you first started to tell me about this boyfriend that you had gotten and how he treated you. Shane was a wanker from the first moment that I met him and I wanted to stop you from making any drastic decisions.”_ My dad comforted me and I smiled to myself as I cuddled with my Donatello that Richard had gotten for me a few years ago for Christmas.

“I know dad, I know how much you wanted to protect me. I love you so much dad… thank you for letting me talk about this.” I thanked my dad and I saw him smile back at me though it looked exhausted and watery after our emotional conversation.

 _“I love you too princess, more than anything in the entire cosmos. You’re my favorite person aside from my siblings as annoying as they get. Have you heard from Karen at all today?”_ Karen was my first cousin and the daughter of my dad’s sister and the only child that they had. She was easily my favorite out of all those little rascals and I loved her like my own sister but sometimes she would retreat back into herself.

“I haven’t heard from her all day, which is odd. Why how is she doing?” I could tell that my dad was worried about me and my relationship with my favorite cousin.

 _“Welllll she kind of got diagnosed with Bipolar disorder yesterday… she finally went through with the testing and everything and it came out positive.”_ I gasped in sheer shock that my younger cousin had finally figured out what was wrong with her. When I was little she would have what she called Tigger days and Eeyore days.

“Holy cow… no but I’ll text her right now. Thanks for telling me dad, I really do love and miss Karen.” I opened my texting application and clicked on the one that belonged to my cousin and my best friend back home.

_Me: Kar, are you alright? Is there anything that’s happened in the last two days that I should know about?_

“I kept it kind of conspicuous but she might just figure out that you told me. I hope she doesn’t. Does she know that I’m coming up for my birthday? I’d love to see her again.” I asked my dad and he smiled over at me from the other side of the screen happily.

 _“Both sides of the family know that you are coming up and have kept it a secret from you until you knew for sure. Karen will be over the moon to see you, she’s been really down in the dumps lately for no particular reason and Marie is worried about her and her mental health state. That’s why she got the tests yesterday, she wanted answers and she finally got them. I can tell that she feels better knowing now though.”_ I could tell that my dad was proud of his youngest niece as she was a Junior in high school right underneath me. This was the same family that owned the ice rink so we saw each other just about everyday and her mom would teach us how to skate. I was always the more easygoing student though and Karen would almost always need my help getting her feet positioned right and centered.

“I’m really glad that she’s finally getting the answers that she’s always wanted dad. Karen is incredible and one of my favorite people. I remember whenever she had one of her down days we would always go over there with takeout from Hamburger Co and I would stay with her until she felt better. We were always more like sisters instead of cousins.” I said nostalgically and I could tell that my dad was really glad that I had taken the news well.

 _“So let’s talk about your visit okay? You’ll be here for two weeks right? I can easily change the flight if that’s not the case and you need to be back at school though.”_ Man I would hate to have to tell him this but he needed to hear that I wouldn’t be able to stay the originally planned on two weeks.

“I can’t stay there for two weeks, I promised Sam that I would be back for his birthday which is exactly a week after mine. I’ve never missed it before and I don’t plan on missing it now.” I apologised to my dad and he nodded his head as I could see him get on his phone to probably change the flight number.

 _“It’s fine little love, I know that Sam would want you to be there for his birthday. What else happened today?”_ I knew that I couldn’t avoid the inevitable any longer and I had to bring up the elephant in the room.

“Well, mom is pregnant. I’m going to be an older sister in either January or February. Which sucks because I’m most likely going to want to go Southampton University so this child will probably never see me at all.” I mentioned to my dad and I saw his eyes widen across the screen and I saw the regret in his eyes.

 _“That’s great that you’re going to be having a younger sibling. I know how much you always wanted one but it just wouldn’t have worked between your mother and I. We both wanted different things but I’m happy that you’re excited about the child. Have you checked your Youtube channel at all today?”_ I nodded my head excitedly and smiled to myself.

“I did, I checked it at lunch today. One million subscribers and I can hardly believe it. It feels like it was just yesterday that I reached a thousand. In the last year the channel seems to have exploded in popularity. I’m really happy that everybody is really enjoying it though, it makes me proud of myself for never showing my face.” I said to my dad who nodded his head approvingly and I saw his smile that could light up the entire room when my laptop ding.

“Oh, it’s from Karen, hold on a minute.” I clicked on the icon seeing the message from my favorite cousin.

_My favorite cousin: I should have known that your dad would have told you about it. I was going to tell you when I saw you in a few weeks but it’s true, I have Bipolar disorder. But here’s the thing, I’m honestly really happy about the entire thing. I feel better than I have in months now that I finally know what’s wrong with me._

_“I’m really proud of how much your channel has grown in the last year and a half. It’s an incredible thing that your using your talent for animation and your beautiful singing voice to bring your favorite songs to life. Do you know what you want to do for a celebration yet?”_ I nodded my head still holding my Donatello as I thought about a way to respond to Karen’s text.

“I want to make a set of albums really badly, one for anime openings and one for regular music. I just haven’t figured out what songs will be on which album yet.” I said as I texted my cousin back.

_Me: I’m really glad that you’re happy with how everything went down. I can’t wait to see you again cous, I miss you a lot. I’ll make time without Bucky so we can have girl talk._

_“Hmmm… that’s what I figured that you would say. I have some suggestions for both sides, you have to do Hope because that’s easily the most popular video and that songs message is really profound, Snow Fairy will also need to be on that album because you love Fairy Tail, Hacking to the gate though that’s just me since that’s my favorite show.”_ I nodded my head at my dad knowing that he was on the right track for how I wanted things to work.

“I also want to work with Sakura Kiss, the first opening to Kaleido Star since I’ve never done that one and it’s another show that’s a constant inspiration to me. I think I love way too many shows dad..” I heard my dad’s bubbling laughter and I smiled at him.

 _“You can say that again and we haven’t even touched on just regular music yet. Hopefully when you get here we can talk about this more in detail. I think Kaleido Star would be really adorable especially since that was one of your first when you were only a little girl. What was your first?”_ My dad asked me not really remembering and I laughed at him from the other end of the screen surprised that he forgot how much that show had meant to me and still does.

“It was One Piece!! You don’t remember? Jamie showed me that image of Sanji kicking ass and taking names after that pig was hitting on that girl. That was the moment when my entire life changed forever when I saw his feet kicking as fast as they could and I fell in love with that character. I was really little though, around the age of five so I can understand if you forgot. Kaleido Star was right after that and that’s when I came into contact with the amazingness of Sora, Mia, Anna and Ken easily all of them changed my life in different ways.” I smiled to myself and pushed a stray lock of hair behind my ear.

 _“I remember now, I often get those two shows confused since both happened around time. Your favorite was Mia though wasn’t it?”_ I nodded my head at my dad’s question.

“That’s right!! I did really love Mia since I related to her the most out of all the characters in the show. Aside from Anna and Sora of course but most of the time Mia made me smile the most.” I heard the door open downstairs and knew that Richard was off of his call finally and I heard a knock on my door.

 _“Is that Richard? Do you need to go honey?”_ I shrugged my shoulders for a moment before pausing the video and opening the door.

“Sorry, was I interrupting your time with your father?” I looked at the time on the clock realizing that it was actually really late and I should let my father go and get back to work.

“No you’re not, I was talking to him but I should really let him go.” I pressed play again on the video to say goodbye to my dad.

“I’ll let you get back to work dad, I love you so much. I’ll call you tomorrow.” I said to my dad as he blew me a kiss from the side of the screen.

 _“Alright princess, I love you so much. See you tomorrow.”_ I clicked on the end call still seeing Richard in the hallway.

“Did you need me for something? Is that why you had me hang up with my dad?” I asked Richard who just shook his head at me kindly.

“I’ve actually been meaning to ask you if you wanted pasta for dinner. Your mom will be home in a few minutes--” I heard the front door open and close and I smiled through a laugh at my stepfather.

“Apparently she’s home now so are you hungry?” I nodded my head though faintly knowing that tomorrow during breakfast I would have the conversation that I was dreading. Richard left after that to help my mom with dinner and I sat down at my bed wondering how on earth my life went to shit after I tried to hard to make my parents proud of me.


End file.
